University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) has introduced a permanent revolution in the way patients are cared for on wards.

The Trust, which runs the new 1,213-bed Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham in Edgbaston, has developed the Care Round to make everyone who comes into contact with a patient more responsible for that patient’s well-being.

The Care Round concept sees a single checklist for a range of hourly observations about each patient. The list can be completed by any hospital staff who visit the patient, including nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, dieticians and healthcare assistants.

UHB Chief Nurse Kay Fawcett said the initiative would reinforce and standardise levels of patient care: “We have outstanding staff here at UHB, and this initiative has been embraced because it gives us a way of ensuring patients are being seen and cared for.

“Even on very busy wards, we know the clinical care remains excellent but we need to ensure the patient is as happy and as comfortable as possible. And, most importantly, they need to feel that the staff are looking after them and are there to help.

“Patients are at the centre of everything we do here, so this is extremely important for us and we feel it is something which will be watched closely by other trusts around the country.”

UHB is also implementing the system in a radically new way, with rapid uptake across all of the Trust’s 29 regular inpatient wards. Traditional approaches would usually involve a pilot scheme in one or two wards.

Kay says this new approach, which is being encouraged and supported by the Department of Health, means improvements can be made more quickly: “We know this is an approach which will work, so we want to bring it in as quickly as possible.”

Staff Nurse Nancy Funnell works on a neurosurgery ward in the old Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and said the new Care Round had been welcomed by nurses: “It’s really good because it can be done by anybody who comes into contact with the patient.

“That straight away gives you a bigger input, and it’s been working really well from everything I’ve seen.

“It covers things we already do well and things we should be doing anyway as nurses, so it helps us do the job even better.

The 22-year-old staff nurse was working on Ward 407 in the new QEHB when the Care Rounds were introduced, and said the system worked well in both the old and new hospitals.

“The two are very different but it still works well, because nursing is basically the same wherever you are. The new hospital has more single rooms, so the care round makes sure those patients aren’t left feeling isolated.”