Aims To review current adolescent opinion regarding a recent admission to the paediatric ward in a District General Hospital (DGH). The paediatric ward admits patients from neonates to their 15^th birthday and does not have a separate adolescent bay.

Methods A questionnaire was posted to all 11–18 year old patients who were admitted to the Paediatric Ward from July 2012–Sept 2012. The questionnaire was re-posted after 4 weeks to those who had failed to return the initial form.

Results Returns 49/109 (46%); 29 surgical patients and 20 paediatric medical patients. 86% stated that their care was good or very good. 82% felt they had a good understanding of the reason for admission. 86% felt the medical staff took their opinion of board when deciding treatment plans. 4% had a question they wanted to ask but didn’t, while 6% would have liked to have been able to speak to someone in private but felt they didn’t have the opportunity to. 14% felt they could not speak to the medical team, either due to concerns about confidentiality or other reasons. 47% stayed in a bay with patients a lot younger than themselves with 74% preferring to stay in a bay with patients their own age group. 70% were bored some or most of the time. 78% were happy with the level of privacy while 20% felt it could have been better.

Conclusions This audit identified a population that feels their opinion is taken into account (86%) and are happy with their level of care (86%). A proportion had concerns about confidentiality and other reasons (14%) that prevented them from speaking to the medical team while 6% would have like to speak to someone in private, raising the need to engage more with this demographic. Ward placement is also an issue with the majority (74%) preferring to stay in a bay with their own age group.