Every Voice - Deserves to be Heard

Every Voice - Deserves to be Heard

At the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust (RCHT), we are passionate about ensuring that every story author is heard and receives a response in a timely manner. We pride ourselves on being one of the most responsive NHS Trusts utilising Care Opinion as a way to collect patient feedback, always aiming to respond to stories within 7-10 days so that story authors are not left feeling unheard. We are incredibly proud of our staff engagement meaning that our response rate rarely dips below 90% - as I write this, we are currently sat at 97%. This is not due to a small number of stories being posted, in the 85 days of quarter 1 24/25 so far, we have had 129 stories uploaded.  

 As previously mentioned, we are incredibly proud of our staff engagement. We recognise that time constraints can mean that stories are not responded to by the service, and this is where the Patient Engagement team steps in here at RCHT. If we do respond, we always forward on the story to the relevant team, encouraging them to respond if possible and to share the feedback with their staff. We live by the opinion that a response from the service is a more meaningful one because the teams know more about their services, what are its strengths and weaknesses, what improvement projects are on going etc.

We asked some of our top responders how they use Care Opinion stories within their departments:

Lucie Baker - Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orthodontics

“My name is Lucie and I am Sister of the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Orthodontic department at Treliske hospital. The Care Opinion platform is hugely beneficial to our team and department as it helps us to identify areas for development and improvement and to drive positive change within the unit.

The feedback is also a great morale boost for our team, we all really appreciate patients taking the time to post comments regarding their experience with us. Stories are always shared and celebrated amongst the team.”

Bridget Nankivell - Clinical Admin Lead, Obstetrics and Maternity

“I value Care Opinion because it allows our patients to easily provide us with any feedback they might have. This feedback can inform our plans for improvement as well as allowing us to recognise what is going well and celebrate our successes. It is helpful to know from patients what made the positive difference to their care and treatment, even the little things can be far more significant than we realise. But equally we need to know what could have been better because learning and continuing to improve is just as important to us.

There is also tremendous value for other potential patients, many of whom can be anxious ahead of their appointment, who can read feedback and find information and reassurance on the care they can expect when they are with us.

All comments are fed back to the staff and certainly help boost morale and the feeling of achievement across the team.”

Chris Harrison - Healthcare Assistant, Gynaecology Outpatients

“Our hope in Gynae Outpatients is that women feel supported and reassured about any procedure that they might be coming to have in our department. As you know, there are many unpleasant stories out there and those are the ones that seem to come to the fore when people enquire about a procedure. We print off our Care Opinion stories and put them in a folder in our waiting area in hope that through Care Opinion we can get the message out there that maybe these things are not to be feared. Also, by reading about real patient experiences they can be doubly reassured, much more so than a healthcare professional telling them, "it will be fine!"

As a morale boost for the team, it is invaluable, but, equally if a situation is highlighted that could be improved upon it is a great learning tool as well.”

So, looking at the comments from our staff above, we can be assured of the value of Care Opinion within RCHT, mainly using the system to inform change, celebrate success and in the reassurance for patients coming for procedures who may be anxious about doing so. It is such an important resource, and our responsiveness only strengthens the message that we are listening!

If you want to know more about how we engage with staff here at RCHT, please get in touch by emailing us: rcht.patientengagement@nhs.net

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, we hope it has been helpful!

Best wishes,

Jess Saunders - Patient Engagement Coordinator, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust