Our approach to quality

At Sue Ryder we take safety extremely seriously.

Our approach to quality makes sure that our staff are highly skilled and fully supported in keeping the people we care for, and their families, safe. This includes:

• Clinical quality
• Safeguarding
• Concern and complaints

On the rare occasion that an incident puts someone’s safety at risk, we follow the NHS Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).

The PSIRF aims to improve how services respond to incidents and involve the people affected by them. It also makes sure that we learn from incidents so we can improve the quality and safety of care in the future.

The four key aims of PSIRF are:

• Compassionate engagement and involvement of those affected by patient safety incidents
• Application of a range of system-based approaches to learning from patient safety incidents
• Considered and proportionate responses to patient safety incidents
• Supportive oversight focused on strengthening response system functioning and improvement

You can download our full PSIRF policy and plan here.

• Sue Ryder Patient Safety Incident Response Policy 2024
• Sue Ryder Patient Safety Incident Response Plan 2024-2025

Whether you want to find out more about end-of-life care, or you’re looking for support after a bereavement, you need quality information you can trust. We aim to provide expert information which is accurate and easy to understand.

• • We use plain English and avoid using jargon to make sure our information is clear and simple.
  • We involve healthcare professionals and other experts to make sure our information is accurate and in line with the latest guidelines or research.
  • We also involve people with relevant lived experiences when producing information to make sure it is relevant. If you’d like to help us improve our information, or if you have any feedback you’d like to share, please get in touch with us through our feedback form.

At Sue Ryder, we strive to provide the best possible care and service we can, but we recognise that we might not always get it right. We actively encourage people to provide feedback, including through our online feedback form, so that we can resolve issues and continue to improve.

If you are unhappy about our service in any way, please raise this with your local team as soon as possible. You can raise a concern if you are feeling uneasy or anxious about the service, or you can make a formal complaint.

Issues can often be resolved straightaway, but in some instances we will need to conduct an investigation to better understand what has happened and to prevent it from happening again. You will be as involved in this investigation as you want or feel able to be, and will be informed of the findings and any changes being made as a result. Should you be unhappy with our response, we can escalate your concern further, or there are other organisations you can speak to.

For more information, download our complaints leaflet.

Please be aware there is a different process for our hospices and our neurological service at Dee View Court.

• How to raise a concern or make a complaint (Hospices)
• How to raise a concern or make a complaint (Dee View Court)

If your complaint is a serious allegation of professional misconduct, you may wish to report the matter to the Nursing & Midwifery Council, General Medical Council or Health & Care Professions Council.

As a healthcare provider, we have a responsibility for the safety and wellbeing of all the people we support.

Safeguarding adults involves a range of additional measures taken to protect people in the most vulnerable circumstances. This may be due to illness, impaired mental capacity, physical or learning disability or frailty brought about by age or other circumstance. There are many different types of abuse. It can be physical, sexual, financial, emotional, discriminatory or institutional abuse.

We try to prevent any instances of abuse and neglect occurring within our services by:

• ensuring we deliver high quality care
• delivering and developing services that are person-centred
• leadership and staff culture
• providing appropriate training for our staff 
• closely adhering to policies and procedures, and ensuring these are regularly updated as new laws and regulations are put in place
• responding effectively to any instances 
• complying with the Care Quality Commission with regular inspections. Safeguarding is a fundamental requirement for registration and complying with the Care Quality Commission, Essential Standards for Quality and Safety.

All healthcare organisations are required to make information available about medicines used in their organisations. Each of our care delivery sites use their respective local formularies (a formulary is an official list giving details of prescribable medicines).

If you have any questions about the medicines used in your care and treatment, you can discuss them fully with the doctor, nurse or pharmacist caring for you – please just ask.