HCA Hospitals Achieve Record High Levels of Patient Satisfaction During 2011

Over 99% rate overall quality of care as good or better

An independent audit of patient satisfaction for HCA's six leading London hospitals has shown record high levels of approval during the past year.

Across the group, 99.1% of patients said they rated the overall quality of care as good or better and 99.2% of patients rated overall cleanliness of their hospital as good or better.

Meanwhile 98.5% of patients said they would recommend their HCA hospital to their family and friends.

Patients were asked to score five key points: overall impression of the admission process, overall nursing care, accommodation, catering and the discharge and departure process. Across the group most hospitals were within a few percentage points of each other but the top two hospitals were The Lister and London Bridge Hospital.

Rosemary Hittinger, Group Director of Clinical Performance and Governance at HCA International, said the 2011 figures were a major achievement at a time when all six hospitals were extremely busy. "We are delighted with this achievement which shows the benefit of constant staff training and a culture of striving for the highest quality of service and care," she said.

"This is also the result of teamwork and dedication of every member of staff and it is all the more impressive when you consider that we have major expansion and reconfiguration schemes at a number of our hospitals as we invest long term in new patient facilities and new technology. We must congratulate and thank our staff for their dedication to patient care.

"But we are not complacent. There are always ways we can improve our service so we must continue to strive for perfection and put ourselves in the position of an often anxious patient, frequently not feeling at all well and often coming to hospital for the first time. The safety and care of our patients is our constant focus," she said.

Note to Editors.

HCA International Limited, owns the Capital's six leading private hospitals, all based in central London and each with an international reputation for the highest standards of acute and tertiary care. They are: The Wellington - the largest private hospital in Europe, London Bridge Hospital, The Harley Street Clinic, The Portland Hospital for Women and Children, The Lister Hospital and The Princess Grace Hospital.

HCA also has ten outpatient and diagnostic centres in and around London, a blood and bone cancer treatment unit as a joint venture with the NHS at University College Hospital - together with a young person's cancer unit; The London Gamma Knife Centre, another joint venture with the NHS at St Bartholomew's Hospital and Harley Street at Queen's, a private patient cancer centre at the NHS Queen's Hospital in Romford. In addition, HCA is developing, in partnership with the internationally renowned Christie cancer hospital in Manchester, a new state of the art private patient unit - The Christie Clinic - for patients from across the North of England.

The HCA cancer network is the largest provider of cancer care in the UK outside the NHS. Uniquely, HCA has its own clinical trials unit based in Harley Street, central London.

For more Media Information about HCA or its services, please call Neil Huband on 07808 298989 or 020 7436 6372.