Serco Cares: Improving patient care in UK hospitals

Our customers 2019

Our people contribute to the wellbeing of patients in hospitals throughout the UK, Hong Kong, the Middle East and Australia. Through the services they deliver, they help to create safe and efficient hospital environments and support clinical practice and patient care.

Serco Cares is a programme of employee discovery and development that goes straight to the heart of what it means to work in a hospital. Through Serco Cares, we encourage our employees to adopt a different way of thinking about their roles and the impact they have, replacing: ‘I’m just a…’ with: ‘I’m part of the patient care journey’.

Through lively, interactive workshops we focus on connecting people with the emotional side of working in a hospital and celebrating the impact that caring can have. All our 5,500+ UK Health employees have completed the programme.

The impact of Serco Cares can be seen in the growing number of employee-driven initiatives in the UK hospitals where we operate – all of which focus on improving patient experience and healthcare outcomes.

For example, the ‘Styles & Smiles’ free hair salon for patients at University Hospital Wishaw in North Lanarkshire, Scotland is a collaborative project launched in 2019 in response to feedback from patients to our porters. Anne Leitch, Chief Nurse at Wishaw, said: “Serco Cares is an excellent programme which has had a positive impact on patient and staff experience. Serco staff actively listen to our patients and know what really matters to them. The latest initiative was the ‘Styles & Smiles’ salon and the feedback has been extremely positive.” The Serco Cares team at Wishaw won the NHS Lanarkshire Outstanding Team Award, Non-Clinical for their contribution, and Styles & Smiles won ‘Best Hospital Care Initiative’ at Scotland's Dementia Awards 2019.

Other examples include:

• the work of our colleague, Maria Iglesias Vazquez, at University Hospital Southampton to improve nutrition for child patients with limited diets or who struggle with eating by making mealtimes more engaging;
• a choir launched by our colleagues to entertain patients and visitors at Mile End Hospital in London;
• discounted beverage vouchers for patients waiting for prescriptions at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital; and
• social events at University Hospital Southampton, introduced to enable patients and their families to spend time together having fun away from the ward.

In March 2019, we won the ‘Strengthening the Foundation’ category at the Annual Patient Experience Network Awards – national recognition for Serco Cares and our commitment to delivering excellent patient experiences.