How staff have been supporting patients to use Patient Opinion

Update from Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Posted by on

About: Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

picture of Lisa Metcalf

I was disappointed on Tuesday to see the Newsnight coverage of the work we have been doing within Nottinghamshire Healthcare to engage with our patients.

In the feature, the reporter states that 'We don't know for certain why these reviews are being posted from NHS computers'. I would like to go some way to respond to that, at least within the context of the patients that use our podiatry services.

As part of a Patient Feedback challenge initiative within our organisation, myself and my front line colleagues  wanted to gather meaningful feedback. To really gain insight from our patients about their story, their experience, and what, if anything we could do to improve our service.

We felt Patient Opinion was a fantastic way to gather this feedback. Patients would have the chance, in their own words, to tell us whatever they wanted. And the anonymity is an important part of that. With anonymity, patients feel free to truly express their feelings, their experience, and not sugar-coat it, or try to give us the response they think we want.

So we put up Patient Opinion literature in our waiting rooms. When patients gave comments during their treatment, we told them about the website. And what happened? Very little. Most patients told us they didn't have a computer, or if they did they had problems using it. For our patient group of mainly elderly, vulnerable people, directing people to a website did not work.

We thought about how we could make this work for our patients. We perhaps needed to make it more simple. So we made posters, in large print, with colourful pictures, and provided Patient Opinion feedback forms, pens and a comments box in the waiting room, and lo and behold, the feedback came pouring in. 

We typed these comments up and posted them on to Patient Opinion, using our NHS computers, making sure we stated that we were staff members. Our managers then replied to this feedback, and I printed out all the posts and replies and displayed them in our waiting room, for patients to see when they returned. We made changes to our services based on the Patient Opinion feedback. Things have improved directly due to what our patients have told us, anonymously, and in a way that worked best for them.

And it's as simple as that. Giving vulnerable patients a voice, trying to understand their experience of our service, and making things better for them, has been our motivation for using Patient Opinion in the way that we have. We are proud of the work we have done, of the changes we have made, of the positive effect this initiative has had on our patients, our staff, and our service; this has been our only agenda. 

If the Newsnight team had come to see us, to talk to our patients, to see how we use Patient Opinion, to see the original Patient Opinion comments forms, completed by our patients in their own words and then transcribed exactly as written, on to the website, then maybe it would help them to understand why it is necessary for our staff to help support our patients to get their voice heard.

Response from Jane Danforth, Involvement & Experience Officer, Involvement, Experience and Volunteering Team, Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust on

I was so pleased to read your blog Lisa.

Like you I was dismayed that the Trust was portrayed in such a negative light. The staff who actively seek patient feedback and post it onto the site using NHS computers go out of their way to help vulnerable people who can't feedback without help from staff. 

When Podiatry recently improved their appointment system as a result of that feedback I was bowled over by the efforts of staff to improve the service.

As we know, it works really well and we will continue to be open and transparent. Newsnight went onto a ward and spent a whole day talking to NHS staff about all the positive things that had happened due to feedback and yet the report failed to highlight any positive outcomes!

A huge thank you to you all for trying to make the NHS better

Jane 

Response from Andrew Crooks, Engagement & Support Officer, Sheffield, Care Opinion on

The story below is about one of my passions - football - and it was posted by 'Gerrard' (as a staff member posting for a patient/service user), 16 months ago. My other passion, by the way, is participation and equality.

Football truly saved my life | Patient Opinion https://www.patientopinion.org.uk/opinions/79574 via @patientopinion

I am posting this link as a disabled person who has received the support of NHS staff on numerous occasions - if people are questioning the  genuine intention of goodwill accompanying the gesture and actions of Gerrard here - well they have no right.

Furthermore - to call into question the emancipatory tool that Patient Opinion (PO) and Care Opinion (CO) presents to sometimes excluded groups like eg disabled people - the Newsnight piece should do no more than warn the producers of the show that apparently one dimensional journalism achieves little.

Just because PO and CO are on-line resources they shouldn't exclude those without access to the internet.

They should never exclude stories of a positive nature either. Who could doubt that this is a genuine story from a genuine service user and that 'Gerrard' hasn't carried out a genuine act on behalf of one of his service users?

Who should deny the learning offered to the team who helped this patient onto the 'first rung of the ladder'? Surely it's vital that staff get to hear they are getting it right.

As a disabled person who has experienced this kind of practical support, and as an involvement worker who has provided similar support to other sometimes disadvantaged individuals - from many different community backgrounds - this is genuine feedback. It is also quite obviously a natural way of offering support.

From what I have seen of the Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust - they go far and beyond the minimum efforts on transparency called for by the likes of Francis and Keoch.

I want to say thank you to Notts and my employers Patient Opinion. Keep on doing the fabulous work that both your organisations do.

Now, am I biased or am I someone who deserves to have a voice? I'll let readers of this post decide.

I am Andrew Crooks Engagement and Support Officer at Care Opinion 

This blog post is closed to responses.