Privacy and Dignity

Providing care which respects dignity is about individual actions and attitudes and how all staff relate to service users, relatives and each other.

Walsall NHS Community Health attaches the highest importance to ensuring that a culture exists that values service users, staff and visitors.  The organisation also aspires to high standards of excellence and professionalism that ensures everyone’s right to be treated with dignity and respect. Our aim is to value each person as a valued and respected individual while seeking to understand and address their priorities and needs.  

A range of national guidance underpins Walsall Community Health’s approach to ensuring privacy and dignity.  These include, but are not limited to: 

Department of Health (2008): The National Health Service Constitution.  Department of Health, London

Department of Health (2006): Dignity in Care Campaign.  

The Royal College of Nursing (2008): The Dignity Challenge.

Skills for Care (2008): The Common Core Principles to Support Self Care.

Help The Aged (2008): The Challenge for Assessing Dignity in Care.

In May 2009 Walsall Community Health agreed a ‘Privacy and Dignity Policy’ with the aim of providing front line staff with guidance on the promotion of privacy and dignity. 

The policy reminds staff that they are responsible for monitoring privacy and dignity issues as part of their everyday work and reminds them to respond appropriately if they feel that the privacy and dignity of patients is being infringed.  Staff are required to ensure that patients feel they matter, patients must  not experience negative attitudes or behaviour and be provided with a confidential service at all times.

Walsall Community Health undertook Essence of Care Benchmarking for privacy and dignity in October 2008 and this showed that considerable positive work was being undertaken in clinical service areas with respect to privacy and dignity.  A Cross Service Report was created to record this and recommendations were also agreed to improve privacy and dignity issues further which has been monitored through the Essence of Care Steering Group. 

NHS Walsall will be closely working with our main providers to ensure they deliver substantial and meaningful reductions in the number of patients who report that they share sleeping or sanitary accommodation with members of the opposite sex. Our main provider of Acute services, Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust has been allocated funds from the Department of Health Privacy and Dignity Fund and NHS Walsall will closely monitor progress on their plans, which can be seen here. http://www.walsallhospitals.nhs.uk/WalsallHospitals09/Patients/YourStayInHospital.asp