What the bloggers are saying about Patient Opinion

Occasionally I realise that my Spanish O level has more uses than just helping me order tapas and beer while on holiday.  It has enabled me to read an interesting post from Javier Llinares Salas on Health 2.0. (If you don’t read Spanish you can get an idea of what’s being said by copying Javier’s post into Babelfish.) Javier talks about private web 2.0 initiatives which supplement and intend to improve the public service they focus on, which enable the public to have some control over the services they receive.  One of the examples he mentions is FixMy Street.   

This site works in a similar way to Patient Opinion, in that public reports of vandalism, broken paving slabs, dumping etc, are communicated directly to the relevant council.  Depending on how you look at it, the public are contributing to the improvement of the council’s service, or shaming them into doing their job properly.

Patient Opinion gets a mention from Javier, as one such tool which gives power to the patient.  For Javier, sites like Patient Opinion represent a radical change for the administration of public services, helping to move towards a truly patient-led NHS.  In his words “The revolution has begun.”  

Patient Opinion is also getting some great press from it’s inclusion in the e-Health Insider report on Web 2.0 in the health Sector, where Patient Opinion is described as

 

 “...a standard bearer in connecting public feedback into the development of health services”.

(thanks to Explain Health for publishing that particular quote). 

A great accolade and a very interesting report.