Gift: Changing the communicating culture

Thanks to Pennie Taylor, independent health journalist and broadcaster. for her “gift” reflection.

For me, Patient Opinion comes laden with gifts: it offers patients and those who care for them a direct way of sharing their experiences and their views about the services they use, without having to get tangled in red tape; it allows individual nurses, doctors and other important health workers to hear first-hand just how much they are valued for what they do day-in-day-out; and it brings valuable pointers for service providers about how to improve safety, quality and the patient experience. But most of all, it is changing the communicating culture in NHSScotland.

I listen to the voices behind the Patient Opinion postings, and hear people talking to one another in extremely refreshing ways. For too long there has been the perception that the NHS is defensive, and resorts to jargon to distance itself from ‘ordinary’ people. There seem to be those who see it as their job to close public conversations down and get critical comment offline as quickly as possible. But there is a growing army of others that welcomes the opportunity to engage with people posting their stories, and show that they really do care.

Over the past year, I have whooped with delight to read the compassionate and heartfelt contributions of some star PO responders. Among them has been the Scottish Government Quality Unit’s Clinical Lead, Craig White, who has proved willing to set his lofty status aside to join in the online discussions www.patientopinion.org.uk/opinions/177912.

Patient Opinion is a medium that flattens hierarchies, putting people with something important to say directly in touch with those who need to hear it. Change can result, improving our much-loved health service and thereby making things better for others. When it comes to gifts, who could ask for more than that?