MORECAMBE Bay hospitals have scored highly for their care of children in a newly published watchdog survey.

The University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) was one of 137 trusts to take part in the Care Quality Commission's first survey in England collecting views of children and teenagers about their hospital care.

The Trust, which runs hospitals in Kendal, Barrow and Lancaster, scored at least nine out of 10 in more than half the questions.

Nationally, almost 19,000 young people aged up to 15, and their parents or carers, were asked about their patient experience during July, August and September 2014.

Topics covered included pain management, being treated with respect, standards of cleanliness and the quality of information given.

The responses were converted into scores out of 10, and benchmarked against other trusts nationally.

UHMBT was rated as ‘better’ than most trusts in 12 of the 49 questions that were given scores, in areas such as feeling safe in hospital, staff knowing how to care for individual or special needs and agreeing a plan for the child’s care with parents or carers.

The Trust was found to be 'about the same' as other trusts in the remaining 37 scored questions.

But many of the 112 youngsters who responded gave the thumbs down to hospital food in Morecambe Bay, with the two questions about food accounting for their two lowest scores, at 6.8 and 6.3 out of 10.

Sue Smith, Executive Chief Nurse at UHMBT, said staff had taken steps to improve hospital food for young people.

She said: “We have been working hard with young people on the ward, clinical staff and even children in local schools to improve the food we offer.

“Thanks to their help, we now have a fully revamped menu, snacks available 24/7, and one of our Chefs now goes down to the ward to serve the food to the children directly from a specially designed food trolley.”

Mrs Smith also said: “We welcome the publication of this survey. It is vital we ask children what they think of the services we provide, and gain the opinions of their parents or carers.

“I am really pleased that those who completed the survey were happy in the main about their care, with an overall score of 8.7 out of 10, and 8.9 out of 10 from the parents and carers.”