Care Opinion is the new online user feedback system for Northern Ireland

Update 27th October 2020

             Health & Social Care Trusts embrace experiences shared

                                           through Care   Opinion

Twelve weeks following the offical launch of Care Opinion in Northern Ireland each Health and Social Care Trust in the region continues to engage, respond and learn from stories. At a time of unprecedented demand in our health and social care system it is crucial services users and their carers have a safe space, protected from all the other noise in the system, to share their experiences and engage in dialogue through services responses.

At a recent conference in NI, held virtually, I couldn't help but reflect upon the phrases we now commonly use as a result of video conferencing 

..."can you hear me?"....

... "You need to unmute"...

To draw parallels many service users and carers have been asking the question "can you hear me?" for many years. Challenging us to listen and to learn. Equally so a number of pioneers in expereince have been seeking to "unmute" the service user voice throughout the last decade... to embed Co-production.. to push through with shared desicion making and partnership working and ensuring the service user is involved at all levels of the system. As we continue to implement Care Opinion across Northern Ireland we seek to "unmute" the voice of the service and commit to them being heard.

Update 7th August 2020

Online feedback platform Care Opinion launches in Northern Ireland

From 3rd August 2020 service users, families and carers will have the opportunity to share their experience of Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland (HSC) through Care Opinion, with a commitment to our citizens will be heard and can make a difference.

The Health Minister, Mr Robin Swann said: "Care Opinion is an important tool that will help us deliver enhancements but for it to work as well as it can, we need to hear from everyone who has experience of using our health and social care services that includes service users and their families and carers. We want to hear not only about what has worked well, but also about the times when things could have been better. I would encourage people to use the platform and make their voice heard.”

The Public Health Agency is responsible for the implementation across the six trusts in Northern Ireland. Director of Nursing and Allied Health Professions at the Public Health Agency, Rodney Morton said: “The launch of Care Opinion will provide a platform for improvements driven directly by feedback from patients and their families.It will enable the public to influence health and social care services in new, open and transparent ways. We are really excited about taking this work forward.”

This is a very exciting development across our system and look forward to exploring how this impacts upon and improves our system

Update 23rd March 2020

The formal launch of Care Opinion in Northern Ireland has been temporarily postponed; In light of the management of COVID 19 in Northern Ireland many of our staff have been mobilised to support the frontline and prioritise clinical care; however your story is important and we remain committed to listening and responding to you. As the lead for Patient Client Experience in Northern Ireland it is my role to assure you that I will be working with our trusts and wider health care system to share the experiences of citizens in Northern Ireland and to provide each author with a response. 

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Post 9th March 2020

In April 2020 Care Opinion will be launched as the new online user feedback system across all health and social care services in Northern Ireland.

Up until now we have been unable to respond to feedback posted about the Health & Social Care Services in Northern Ireland. But we are now delighted to be working with the Care Opinion team and look forward to receiving your feedback. We are committed to responding to each individual story received from April 2020 onward.

Feedback from patients, relatives and carers is essential to inform effective and meaningful development of our services as we seek to provide safe and effective care.

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences and we hope that you continue to do so.