PLACE

Good environments matter. Every NHS patient should be cared for with compassion and dignity in a clean, safe environment.

Patient-led Assessments of the Clinical Environments (PLACE) were launched in 2013. It is a new system for assessing the quality of the patient environment, replacing the old Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) inspections.

The aim is to motivate improvement by providing a clear message, directly from patients, about how the environment or services might be enhanced.

The assessments apply to hospitals, hospices and day treatment centres providing NHS funded care.

The Northern Devon Healthcare Trust asked for volunteers to new will provide motivation for improvement by providing a clear message, directly from patients, about how the environment or services might be enhanced.

All 17 of our hospitals are inspected (link to our services) which include North Devon District Hospital and 16 Community Hospitals.

The Trust was assessed by teams made up of patients, the public and staff who scored our facilities and services against 150 different standards. The results are published by NHS England every year.

We asked one of the patient assessors to provide us with feedback about their experience. This feedback report is here and the general sense was that we opened every area and cupboard to the assessors and were completely transparent.

How we performed in 2013

The Northern Devon Healthcare Trust scored:

As part of this new style national inspection, thousands of members of the public joined NHS staff to lead more than 4,600 assessments in hospital and community NHS settings to shine a light on the things that matter to patients – being treated in a clean, safe environment, tasty nutritious food, and high standards of privacy and dignity.

Full report

Download the full report and action plan (pdf)

Future assessments

PLACE will run again in 2014. If you’d like to take part, details of the application process will be given on this page in due course.