VIDEO: A new initiative to collect valuable feedback about patients’ and carers’ experiences of services provided by Isle of Wight NHS Trust began on Monday (4th July) with the start of a partnership with a leading patient feedback company.
The Trust is partnering with iWantGreatCare to provide a new and robust way of collecting feedback from patients who use the health care services provided by the Trust across the Isle of Wight.
iWantGreatCare is an independent company, which collects reviews and ratings from patients, carers and families about NHS hospitals, GP surgeries, doctors, dentists, physiotherapists and clinics.
When patients attend clinics, appointments, attend St Mary’s Hospital or are treated in the community by ambulance, mental health and learning disability, nursing or allied health professional staff they will be asked to complete an online survey or paper-based feedback form to rate their experience. This feedback will be reported in real time so issues can be acted on immediately.
The key features of this new system are:
• Easier to use online feedback website with a dedicated area for Trust services
• Feedback also possible using hard copy forms
• The ability to feedback about both individual members of staff and services
• Real-time reporting – no delay in staff and services receiving their feedback
• A dedicated app for young children to use to provide feedback
All services at St Mary’s Hospital including medical and surgical wards, antenatal, labour and postnatal services will be taking part in iWantGreatCare. With a wide range of services delivered from over 20 locations across the Island this new feedback mechanism will be available to everyone who uses services provided by the Trust.
The iWantGreatCare methodology makes it easy for NHS organisations to act on the feedback they receive from patients and their families to improve care and services. Wards and services will receive a weekly report so that good care can be congratulated and areas of improvement can be identified and acted upon.
Further announcements will be made as the services are loaded onto the iWantGreatCare website and the initiative is rolled out across the Trust. There will also be an iWantGreatCare ‘widget’ on the front page of the Trust’s website so that service users and carers can easily find the feedback site.
Alan Sheward, Executive Director of Nursing and the Isle of Wight NHS Trust Lead for quality said:
“iWantGreatCare is a unique way of collecting information about what patients really think about the treatment and care they are receiving. It gives staff the opportunity to listen to what patients are telling them and see how they can continue to improve. iWantGreatCare builds on the Friends and Family feedback scheme which has been running for some time but does not give immediate feedback to patients, carers or staff.”
Attending the launch event Dr Neil Bacon (founder of iWGC) said:
“I’m delighted that everyone living in the Isle of Wight will be able to join the millions of patients across the UK in having a simple, transparent and real-time way to give feedback on their healthcare services 24 hours a day; to be able to highlight and say thank you for excellent care, as well as to suggest ways the service can improve for the next patient.
“It is super to know that the voice and opinion of every single patient and carer can now be heard, and will be placed at the heart of the exciting development and continuous improvements being made to the NHS across the island.”
Linda Fair, Chair of the Trust’s Patient Council said:
“The Patient Council has endorsed the development of this new feedback mechanism which is very easy for patients and carers to use. Our 25 strong panel of Trust members will be reviewing the feedback the Trust receives. I would encourage all patients and carers to make sure that they provide constructive feedback to the Trust highlighting both what is good about services and what can be improved.”
Dr Mark Pugh, Medical Director at Isle of Wight NHS Trust, commented:
“All clinicians want to know what their patients think about them and the services they run, so we can improve and continue to build trust and confidence. We all recognise the importance of patient and carer feedback and that’s why we are using this new feedback mechanism to help us ensure we are delivering the highest quality services now and can evolve them through feedback for the future.”
