Impact #1 - Part of the listening toolkit

In this, the first of a series of blogs exploring the impact of online feedback, Scotland's Chief Nursing Officer, Professor Fiona McQueen shares her views.

                    

There are certain things we now have, that when we think about it, we can’t imagine how we lived without them.  The list for me is endless and whilst I can be flippant about some (yes, I’m confident I could live without hair straighteners and a travel kettle so I can have a cup of tea no matter where I am ) there are other ‘inventions’ that have happened over the last few decades that are truly life changing.  Clearly there are life changing technologies and drugs that give the gift of life to many and improved quality of life to even more.  But there are also other apparently ‘little’ things that do make such a difference. Whilst most of us actually could live our lives without our mobile phones; for some people with communication difficulties, the apps that have been developed for tablets and phones have opened a channel of communication that has been truly transformational.

That’s where I would place Patient Opinion and now Care Opinion.  Firmly within the category of, yes we probably could do without them; but our world would be a much emptier, bleaker place; and the services and lives that they have transformed, would not have been transformed..  We underestimate the impact of poor care and service at our peril.  And we also underestimate the power and transformation that recognition of that poor care and the authentic apology can have on people’s lives.  That’s where Patient Opinion and Care Opinion come in.

I can hardly believe we’ve only had Patient Opinion since 2011.  For me it’s become an essential component of our NHS.  Without truly listening to people who use our services, we will never reach our 2020 vision or our quality ambitions of world class healthcare.  The ease of posting a comment, the responsiveness of the Patient Opinion team, have for me, been quite remarkable in adding to our toolkit of listening, and really listening, to what people have to say about our services.

                    

And of course, with many of the postings on the site being positive, there’s also the opportunity for the wonderful staff of NHS Scotland to reflect on what they do well, and keep doing it!

The introduction of Care Opinion again is taking us to where we need to be - to listen to what people have to tell us about how we’re doing on the health and social care front.

A life for me without Patient Opinion, now seems truly bizarre.  Why on earth would we not want a public web site that can capture thoughts and feeling about our services that supports swift resolution?  For those who think we don’t need such facility, then I would ask; ‘Why has it struck such a chord with the public?’.

So what does the future hold?  Maybe, just maybe, our services will be so person centred and truly world class, that Patient Opinion and Care Opinion become obsolete?  However until then I’m confident they will continue to support us in our journey towards truly person centred care and service for every person every time.