THE OVERALL standard of care at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has vastly improved, according to a revealing patient survey.

The Care Quality Commission's annual inpatient survey for 2008, published this month, did show the trust had improved in virtually every category on 2007.

The health watchdog questioned 449 patients about the quality of care at Kent and Sussex, Pembury and Maidstone hospitals in June, July and August last year.

However, despite the improvements, compared with 165 acute and specialist NHS trusts, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust was among the 20 per cent worst performing trusts on issues of communication between staff and patients, and quality of food.

It was also among the bottom 20 per cent of all trusts when patients were asked if they shared a ward with patients of the opposite sex or if they thought there were enough nurses on the wards.

More than 90 per cent of patients said the overall standard of care they received in hospital was either good, very good or excellent.

This compares to a little more than 85 per cent in 2007 and 2006.

However, nationally, the proportion of respondents ranking the standard of care as either good, very good or excellent was 93 per cent.

Some 75 per cent of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust patients felt they were always treated with respect and dignity – a seven per cent improvement on 2006.

And 55 per cent of patients said the hospital ward or room they were in was very clean, compared with 37 per cent in 2006.

Trust director of nursing Flo Panel- Coates said: "The survey shows improvements in patients' perceptions of our quality of care and is supported by other statistics such as our excellent infection control rates – now among the best in the country."

She added the trust had just received more than £500,000 in additional central funding to pay for more ward-based schemes to improve privacy and dignity for patients in all our hospitals.

She said: "We are going to use this extra funding in a variety of ways to improve quality of care

"One of the most positive for patients will be to create more single sex wards.

"Other items on our shopping list include providing additional toilets and bathrooms in some of our wards, improving ward partitioning, installing more disposable curtains to improve privacy, improving signage and paying for more staff training."

Since Mrs Panel-Coates joined the trust in August last year, a raft of improvement measures have been put in place.

These include improved customer care training for staff, ensuring patients who need help with feeding are assisted and a review of nursing staffing across all wards and departments.

The trust has also provided more information for patients about how to raise a concern or make a complaint, such as posters and leaflets.