Good news and tidings of great joy

It’s been a long time since my last blog and I thought the rapidly approaching end of the year would be a good time to look at what we’ve achieved in the Patient Experience Team this year.

 The summer saw an increase in complaints across the whole Trust; at one point the team were working on over 50 complaints which was an increase of about a third on previous months. Despite this increase we managed to continue meeting our Key Performance Indicators on response times and acknowledgements and show a sustained improvement in our percentage of successful contacts to complainants within seven days.

 This isn’t going to be another ‘how good are we’ post; more a look at how far we’ve come and how much there is still to do. The increase in complaints in part reflects various changes that have taken place within the Trust, no one likes change and inevitably new systems take a while to bed down. It also reflects the increased visibility of the Patient Experience Team and the accessibility of our feedback systems which can only be a good thing.

 We are now getting more postings on Patient Opinion and the use of Real Time Feedback is now widespread across the Trust, with ever increasing levels of patient feedback. The new Friends and Family Test is also accessed through the Real Time Feedback system and we are working on ways to increase the uptake and visibility of this.

 The good news is that there has also been a sustained increase in compliments across the Trust. This is fantastic for all our staff and reflects the hard work and dedication that sometimes goes unrecognised because we are all so busy.

 Another piece of good news is that the increase in complaints which we experienced in the summer now seems to have passed and we have reverted to more expected levels; hopefully this will continue. As always though we do not shy away from your complaints and feedback; we want to know what’s gone wrong as well as what we’re good at so keep it coming!