A HEREFORDSHIRE Healthwatch assessment visit to Leominster Community Hospital (LCH) found it was the “little things” that mattered most.

Little things like a health care assistants seen helping patients drink, cutting a pear up into small pieces for one to enjoy and dicing vegetables for another to digest more easily.

Or a “Forget me Not” flower on a bed head for any patient with a memory impairment.

The assessment - due to be presented to Herefordshire Council’s health scrutiny committee -  was made under the ‘Enter and View’ principles allowing Healthwatch representatives into health and social care environments to collect the views of service users and see service delivery at first hand.

Resulting feedback is reported to relevant providers.

Findings, based on a single day at LCH in November last year, record the overall view of assessors of a “very warm and friendly environment” where care was taken to support all patients in their needs.

Patient comments offered to the assessors were deemed so complimentary that Healthwatch is ready to recommend the hospital as an example of best practice on delivering dignity principles.

LCH provides ongoing medical care and rehabilitation to help recovery when patients have had treatment at Hereford County Hospital - or another hospital - but are not well enough to go home.

LCH can take 26 patients divided into two wards - Eaton and Minster - of 13.

A high number of patients at LCH will have a degree of memory impairment.

There is a dementia audit once a month, but Healthwatch found it was not always easy to  quantify as some patients had not had a diagnosis.

Every patient who has a memory impairment is denoted by having an easy to see “Forget Me Not” flower emblazoned on their overhead information panel.

Of the 13 patient’s the assessment engaged with, the majority had varied stages of memory impairment and didnot all respond to all the topics raised.

But overall, those that participated were very positive in their accounting for the dignity with which they were treated.

The assessors own observations evidenced the “compassion” shown to patients and “drive” towards them maintaining their independence.

The arrival of the physiotherapist on a ward is recorded as “very positive” with a “great deal of friendly banter and laughter” from patients happy to go for their exercises.

All areas of the hospital visited were found to be very clean and the staff “friendly and helpful”.

The reports says that, from the information gathered, Healthwatch saw no trends at LCH from which it could make recommendations for improvements.