Hello from Greater Glasgow and Clyde!

Hello and a very warm welcome to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s first Patient Opinion blog!  We have been using Patient Opinion as a way of interacting with our patients for quite a while now, but over the last 10 months or so we have been working hard to not only use this site better, but to increase the variety of ways which patients and their loved ones can share their experience of healthcare.  Additionally, we have put in place more robust systems to ensure this feedback is being seen by the right people, and developing ways to promote the difference that your stories have made.    One of the ways we will do this as we go along is through this blog! 

In this first blog however, I wanted to tell you a little bit about the team I work for and what our role is within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.  I will also tell you a bit about what we are doing to make sure the patient voice is at the heart of all we do here – that includes what it is we do with your stories once you have put them on Patient Opinion.

My name is Lorna Gray and I am the Patient Experience, Public Involvement Project Manager for the team of the same name.  We are a relatively small team, headed up by Niall McGrogan, with three PEPI Managers and Lisa, who is the team PA and keeps us all in check!  We seek to involve patients and carers in the work of the NHS and working with colleagues to ensure we are delivering a quality health service to our patients and their families. The biggest part of my role specifically is in managing feedback projects across the Board area.  One of these is Patient Opinion, but there are many others too.  This is to make sure that we give the people who use our services as many opportunities as possible to let us know what we can do better, but also what it is we are doing well. 

You will see my name a lot on this site as I am the first responder to your stories on Patient Opinion and make sure they get sent to the people who are responsible for the running of the services.  What happens after that first response is what I want to tell you about today!

Every story that is shared on Patient Opinion is sent on to the General Manager for the relevant service(s) and the associated Patient Experience Lead.  The General Manager is responsible for the overall running of a group of services within a geographical area.  For example, there is a General Manager for Medicine in the South; one for Surgery in Clyde; one for Older People in the North and so on… There is also a Patient Experience Lead for each Sector, or Directorate.  This person is responsible for ensuring that patient experience is at the heart of what each Sector does and ensures that this agenda is given prominence in the Senior Management Teams in each area.

These two people see the stories that you share right away so that they can share the feedback with staff or start to think about how to respond to them. 

Sometimes, we need a bit more information from you so that we can use the feedback you have given us to the best effect.  When it is positive, it means we can send your feedback to the people who cared for you and let them know the difference they made.  Perhaps more importantly, we really need you to get in touch when something has gone wrong, so that we can do our best to fix it.  We see so many people that sometimes we do need more information to look at your individual case specifically.  This will help us to address your personal concerns, but also to see more clearly what we can improve for the future. 

There are of course always lessons to be learned and we have put in place processes to make sure that we are learning from your feedback.  One of the things we do is to produce monthly reports for Sectors which collates all of the feedback we receive from patients and their families and carers.  This includes Patient Opinion, but also our other feedback methods (Universal Feedback, a card given to all inpatients asking one question about the total experience; and our own Patient Feedback system on our website).  This means that on a monthly basis, all of the feedback is viewed by our Senior Management Teams and common themes or issues can be easily identified. 

These teams are then asked to report on what actions they have taken as a result of this feedback on a Quarterly basis. This information then goes to the Board of NHSGGC so that they have an overview of what our patients are saying about the services we provide, as well as what is being done about the feedback we get.

The main point from all of this is that all of your stories are read and responded to and if they are even a little bit critical, go to the top of the Service so that senior managers and nurses get to see them. This process is monitored and we follow up on your postings to make sure your voice is heard.

Hopefully this gives you an insight into what happens in the background and demonstrates how we are listening to you.  What is important for me, and what I aim to improve going forward, is using the Patient Opinion site more to update individual stories and to showcase examples of when we have made changes as a result of feedback so you can really see how much of a difference you can make.

If you have any questions about what we do or suggestions for my next blog, get Posting!!!!