Can’t rest on our laurels!

It’s been an interesting week in the life of Patient Opinion in Scotland – “momentous” is how one of my colleagues described it: and it is!

It was the week during which the Scottish Government formally and publically endorsed the use of Patient Opinion, encouraging and supporting health services across Scotland, ideologically and financially, to employ it as one of the mechanisms they use to listen to and learn from patients.

We are delighted to receive this endorsement and to know that the Scottish Government fully appreciate the fundamental importance of Patient Opinion’s independence, openness and transparency.

We were also delighted and surprised to hear that in February the Scottish Parliament passed a motion commending the work of Patient Opinion in Scotland: proposed by the Shadow Health Secretary for Scotland and supported by MPs from across the parties. I’d like to thank all those involved for your welcome support.

By default, this endorsement encouraged the public too, to find Patient Opinion and to share their stories. We’ve seen a fantastic increase in Scottish stories specifically and traffic in general on the site these past seven days.

So it has been an exciting week for me: a few firsts... met the Health Minister (after getting caught in sleet and snow - I hope he realises my hair doesn’t usually look like a bird’s nest!), was on BBC Radio Scotland’s Call Kaye show (and survived!) and came home from the Scottish Recovery Network Gathering event with lots of fudge intact (unheard of!).

I don’t want to offend anyone but … the most exciting thing about last week was meeting Luckybiker who had shared his experience on Patient Opinion. We don’t really get to meet or speak to authors in the flesh very often as people share their stories anonymously, of course. Mr Neil was keen to meet someone and Luckybiker obliged.

It was great to see him fighting fit (after a life threatening accident), chatting to the Minister, the press, being photographed and filmed. It was especially great to see him with the Scottish Ambulance Service staff, regardless of whether they’d been the ones to race to Luckybiker’s rescue; they were obviously pleased and intrigued to meet this person who’d thanked the service so publicly.

To me, that’s what Patient Opinion is all about bringing people together, helping services and patients to listen to each other and to make a difference.

It has been a great and “momentous” week for us and for patients and health services in Scotland but there is still a great deal of work to be done.

Onward...