Now with added Friends + Family Test

The NHS Friends and Family test (FFT) is now mandated for most NHS providers in England. And it is increasingly clear that the FFT's potential to create change depends on the ability to share stories with relevant staff.

We want to make life simpler for those organisations which must collect an FFT score, but want to hear and share a patient's story, in real-time, act on it, and respond for everyone to see.

So we've integrated the FFT into Patient Opinion (more details). As a patient, you can use it in two different ways:

FFT first

Visit a service page, click "Would you recommend this service?", and give your response. Optionally, share some demographic information and then, if you like, go on to tell a story.

Story first

Tell a story on Patient Opinion in the usual way. For every service your story is about, you can then optionally complete the FFT question.

We think this is the best of both worlds. Scores if you like scores, stories if you like stories.

Of course, if you do share a story on Patient Opinion, it's a little more powerful than the standard FFT process, because

• everyone can read it
• we send it to staff in real time
• you might get a response, or resolve an issue
• you can see if the story results in service improvement
• and you might even contribute to teaching the next generation of health professionals

If you'd like to know more about the FFT on Patient Opinion, our tech blog has the details.

Do you have ideas on how we could improve on this? Let us know in a response, below.