More than 40,000 stories shared about NHS Scotland services!

Back in November 2022, we were delighted to announce that more than 30,000 members of the public in total had shared their feedback on Care Opinion about services provided by Health Boards around Scotland. Now only 15 months later, we are over the moon to share that this number has now reached over 40,000 stories.

Every single one of the over 3769 members of staff across Scotland who are members of a Care Opinion Health Board subscription, and the countless others who work in the NHS in Scotland who read Care Opinion stories, know how much of a gift each and every one of these stories is. 

Once again, we were delighted that National Clinical Director, Prof Jason Leitch CBE gave us a quote to share with you to help us celebrate this brilliant milestone:

“Listening to how patients and their families experience care in the NHS in Scotland provides leaders with helpful insight into what we do well and, also, what could be better. Care Opinion plays an enormous part in providing this information. Most importantly it offers those who use health and care services a platform where they can share their experiences. 

Already more than 40,000 people have come forward to use Care Opinion to share their experiences and this is increasing all the time. The value of this resource cannot be underestimated. When people take the time to write in about what happens to them and how they feel, they can help us improve the way we work.

Well done and thank-you to the Care Opinion team for all you do to make the NHS in Scotland better.”

This financial year already, Patients, Carers, Relatives, Friends and many others have shared more than 8,200 stories about their healthcare experiences, for which we and all of the healthcare staff around Scotland are deeply grateful for. These stories help services know what has worked for them and what has not worked so well for them, helping staff and services to reinforce practices, make changes, learn and develop as a result of this gift of feedback.

One member of staff from a health board reflected:

"Care Opinion provides us with the opportunity to gather real-time feedback and open a two way dialogue. Person centred care can only be delivered by listening to patients and carers and finding out what matters to them. The feedback we receive helps us capture what matters to our patients and their families, identify themes for improvement, as well as celebrating what works well and providing the opportunity to acknowledge the great care provided by our staff."

With still more than one month to go until the end of the current financial year, we have already seen an increase in stories received from members of the public of 26% as compared to last year. This is all down to the great work of staff in services across Scotland, who are promoting feedback in their services, as they want to learn from what the public share, so they can make the NHS better of all of us. But none of this could be done without the Patients, Carers, Relatives, Friends and others, who share the gift of their stories. Gifts that are gratefully received!

To end this blog, I thought I'd share a quote from a story author, who as well as being a relative is a nurse themselves:

"We go along in life on wards, ER and outpatients, doing our jobs and sometimes we need to stop and think when chaos and stress are all around us, when we feel we achieve nothing and what is the point of it all! That so many families like mine watch you and think 'I am grateful you are here, I am grateful for the care you give to your patients and families every day'. We matter because you show us how much you care."