Patients and healthcare professionals came together at Watford General Hospital to learn from each other about delivering the best care for patients.

The Working Together conference is the second time the West Herts NHS Trust, which runs Watford, Hemel Hempstead and St Albans hospitals, and the Patients Association have come together for the event.

The trust’s chief nurse Jackie Ardley said: "I’d like to say thank you to everyone who attended the conference.  Delivering high quality safe patient care is our number one priority and we are very excited to be working alongside the Patients Association.  

"During the course of the day we focused on what makes a good and what makes an unsatisfactory patient experience and what we need to do to improve the services we provide.  

"We want our patients to know that we are listening to their views and that we are using their feedback to constantly improve our standards and their experience in our hospitals.

"I believe that this event is a further step forward in building strong relationships between our patients and our doctors, nurses, midwives and other staff, and is a key milestone in our strategy of involving the local community in owning their hospital." 

Chief executive of the Patients Association, Katherine Murphy, said: "We are absolutely delighted to be working with the trust.  It is fantastic that they’ve reached out to an independent organisation where patients are always at the centre.

"Through our helpline, we capture stories about healthcare from thousands of patients, family members and carers every year. We use this knowledge to campaign for real improvements to health and social care services across the UK. 

"Our organisation uses the motto ‘Listening to Patients, Speaking up for Change’ as the drive for improvement and we look forward to developing our programme with staff at the Trust."