Your safety in our hospitals

Clinical audit is a way to find out if healthcare is being provided in line with standards and lets care providers and patients know where their service is doing well, and where there could be improvements.

The aim is to allow quality improvement to take place where it will be most helpful and will improve outcomes for patients.

Clinical audits can look at care nationwide (national clinical audits) and local clinical audits can also be performed locally in trusts, hospitals or GP practices anywhere healthcare is provided.

Sharing good clinical practice

We are a member of the National Quality Improvement and Clinical Audit Network (NQICAN). Our clinical audit staff meet with clinical audit staff from other NHS organisations to share best practice, receive training and hear updates from NHS England on the latest clinical audit news.

Clinical audit staff provide up to date advice to care providers on to how to conduct effective clinical audits of their care.

The Clinical Audit Annual Programme

Care providers can complete a clinical audit on any aspect of the care they provide. Usually, care providers check to see if their care meets national standards such as those set by NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) or local standards such as hospital policy.

Our clinical audit programme is a mix of local and national audits involving all clinical services provided by the trust. Each year over 300 clinical audits are carried out by our staff.

Guide for patients

When a clinical audit has been undertaken, care providers write up their findings in a report and if necessary, produce an action plan to show improvements that are required.

Further information about the outcomes of our clinical audit programme can be found in our Quality Accounts on our documents and publications page.

For more information email mtw-tr.clinicalaudit@nhs.net.

The NHS needs to plan for, and respond to, incidents and emergencies that could affect health or patient care. 

This could be anything from extreme weather to an outbreak of an infectious disease or a major transport accident. 

We work with partners across the healthcare sector and in our local emergency services to ensure we can respond to emergencies.

We have regular exercises to test our procedures and have a comprehensive training programme.

Chief Operating Officer, Sarah Davis assists in ensuring the Board is aware of the preparedness of the trust to respond to emergencies. Our Resilience Committee considers all aspects of preparedness and is chaired by an executive director.

We are also an active member of the Kent & Medway NHS Emergency Planning Group and the South East London, Kent & Medway Trauma Network Emergency Planning Reference Group.

We are also a member of the Kent Resilience Forum which brings together all the emergency services and other responders such as the NHS, utilities and the voluntary sector. Find out more about their work, including the community risk register at www.kentprepared.org.uk.

Email us at mtw-tr.eprr@nhs.net.

We place a high value on the safety of our patients, visitors and staff.

Being unwell, confused, distressed or in pain can increase your risks of falling or of getting an infection, and we all need to work together to reduce the risk of these things occurring.

Hospitals are busy places with lots of things happening. We move patients, medical equipment and supplies around. We use a lot of different and specialist equipment, which must be used correctly and disposed of properly.

Having a clean environment is a priority and you will see frequent cleaning of floors and equipment.

All of these activities mean there is a potential for accidents to happen. Knowing this means we can highlight any danger and minimise risks.

Our Health and Safety department ensure all risks to patients and staff are assessed and measures put in place to reduce the likelihood of harm. Specialist groups work to monitor and reduce falls, monitor infection prevention and rates, sharps injuries, pressure ulcer damage, and security issues to name just a few.

We have experts in all areas of safety to advise and work alongside staff and help them minimise risks to themselves and to patients and visitors. We also provide training all aspects of health and safety so they are kept fully updated and informed.

It is essential we protect our patients. We are here to make you better and to prevent any further harm or illness. It is also essential we protect our staff because they need to focus on caring for patients.

We are good at what we do and keep risks and accidents to a minimum. For example, we have one accident for every 17,750 medical sharps — such as a needle — used, which is a low rate. However, we are working hard to reduce this even further.

As a learning organisation, when things sometimes go wrong we investigate, identify how it happened and take action to prevent it happening again. We also monitor accidents and incidents to identify trends and we compare ourselves to similar hospitals around the country.

We rely on patients and visitors to work with us to help keep everyone safe. Signs and notices in out buildings are there to direct and guide you. Please follow them and ask staff if you are not sure.

Examples of keeping yourself and others safe are wearing appropriate footwear in the hospital environment, using designated pathways and corridors when moving about, handwashing before and after visits or when moving to different areas, and using sanitising gel frequently to reduce the risk of infection. If you see a problem, such as something spilled on the floor, or damage to a piece of equipment, please help us by reporting it to a member of staff.

The key to health and safety is not to stop people doing what they want to do, but enable them to do so safely.

The Infection Prevention and Control team is led by Dr Sara Mumford, the Chief Medical Officer.

Patients can be more susceptible to infection because of a medical condition, because they are having a surgical procedure, because they may be immunocompromised and if they are using devices such as urinary catheters. 

We do all we can to protect our patients by following best practice guidance and complying with the Health and Social Care Act 2008: Code of Practice on the Prevention and Control of Infection.

We promote the core, evidence-based principles of infection prevention and control including good hand hygiene, correct use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the safe, appropriate use of antibiotics. Although mask wearing is not routinely required in hospital or the community, to help keep our staff and patients safe we continue to offer the option to visitors, patients and staff to wear masks in our hospitals.

If you have questions about hygiene issues during your stay in hospital, please contact the nurse in charge of the ward.

Antibiotics

Healthcare practitioners have a duty to review antibiotics given to patients in hospital on a daily basis and stop them as soon as it is safe to do so.

Effective antimicrobial stewardship helps to prevent the emergence of resistant bacteria and audits are done to monitor compliance with our antimicrobial policies. The Infection Prevention and Control and Pharmacy teams alongside the consultant microbiologists support clinicians to ensure antibiotics are prescribed and reviewed appropriately.

Visiting patients in our hospitals if you are unwell

Please do not visit patients if you have been unwell in the previous 48 hours, particularly if you have had diarrhoea, vomiting or respiratory symptoms. This is to avoid spreading germs to others.

We understand visitors want to be close to their family member or friend who is unwell, and to avoid putting them at risk of infection, so we ask all visitors to sit on the chairs in the wards, and not on the beds.

Please wash or gel your hands before eating meals and wash hands after using any toilet facilities.

Infection control is everyone’s business. Keeping hands clean at all times while visiting, staying at or working in hospital is the simplest way to help keep everyone safe.

If you have any questions about infection prevention, please ask a member of staff in our hospitals or call 01622 227210.

Hygiene code compliance statement 2023 [pdf] 58KB

Norovirus

Norovirus is a frequent cause of diarrhoea and vomiting and is most common during the winter, but can happen at any time of the year.

The virus lasts 2-3 days and the person will have diarrhoea and/or vomiting. Some people may have a raised temperature, headaches and aching limbs. The illness is usually mild and gets better without any medication.

However, the virus can spread very easily in hospital due to close contact between patients and staff.

Large numbers of patients and staff can be involved and it is important to stop the illness spreading around the hospital and to relatives and friends.

We use standard infection prevention precautions, including wearing gloves and aprons, to do this. Sometimes we have to close a ward to new admissions in order to prevent spread to other patients.

When norovirus is seen on a ward, visitors are restricted to help prevent further spread of the infection.

All visitors should wash their hands thoroughly both before and after visiting, and if you are unwell or suffering from diarrhoea and vomiting you should not visit until you have been symptom free for 48 hours.

Links and resources

• UK Health Security Agency
• Department of Health and Social Care
• National Patient Safety Agency
• MRSA Action UK Support Group

Our Patient Safety team work closely with clinical staff, patients and relatives, and when incidents occur we aim to be open and transparent, telling you when things have not gone as expected and saying sorry when errors have happened.

Patient safety incident response plan (PSIRP) 2025-26[pdf] 652KB

Where patient safety incidents happen and meet the criteria set out in the PSIRP, a learning response will be commissioned.

We aim to keep patients, families and carers involved in the process and updated on its progress.

As a partner agency with the Local Authority, we have agreed to follow  the Kent and Medway Safeguarding Adults Board policies and guidance to ensure staff work within the Care Act 2014.

Our staff know they need to protect an adult’s right to live in safety, free from abuse and neglect.

The Care Act 2014 puts Adult Safeguarding onto a statutory footing which means staff must work to:

• Prevent abuse and neglect
• Promote an adult’s well-being
• Take into account, where appropriate, the adult’s views, wishes, feelings and beliefs in deciding what action to take, if any.

There are six key principles that underpin safeguarding:

Empowerment:  people being supported and encouraged to make their own decisions and informed consent. 

Prevention:  it is better to take action before harm occurs. 

Proportionality:  the least intrusive response appropriate to the risk presented. 

Protection:  support and protection for those in greatest need. 

Partnership: working in partnership with local services and contributing to local policy development and to take part in preventing, detecting and reporting abuse and neglect

 Accountability:  accountability and transparency in safeguarding practice. 

Worried about a young person under 18 in Kent?

• Call Social Services on 03000 411111
• Report concerns on the Kent Safeguarding Children website

Worried about an adult in Kent?

• Call Social Services on 03000 416161 (use this number out of hours for children and adults in Kent and Medway)
• Report an adult safeguarding concern on the Kent County Council website

If you think someone is in immediate danger, call 999 for the emergency services.