Independent Website Goes Nationwide For Patients To Drive NHS Change
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“Patients throughout England are playing an active role in driving change in the NHS” said Dr Paul Hodgkin Sheffield GP and Chief Executive of Patient Opinion the independent not-for-profit organisation as www.patientopinion.org.uk goes nationwide this
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week.
www.patientopinion.org.uk is an independent platform for patients to share their experiences and make informed choices about their healthcare and to facilitate change within the NHS.
Since the introduction of patient hospital choice in England
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in 2006 people needing non-emergency surgery have been able to select from a list of hospitals for their treatment. www.patientopinion.org.uk is enabling patients to see what other patients have said when deciding which would be most suitable for their treatment.
Dr Hodgkin said: “We want patients to log on to www.patientopinion.org.uk and feedback their positive and negative experiences of hospital care in England. Patient Opinion directs patient feedback straight to the hospital managers who need to see it for subscribing hospitals. This independent feedback to the NHS motivates staff by providing the recognition they deserve and also helps clinicians and managers to improve services.”
The site also enables subscribing hospitals to respond to feedback online.
“We want to help patients make informed choices about their healthcare” Dr Hodgkin continued: “www.patientopinion.org.uk was set up to enable patients to share their experiences of healthcare and by doing so help other patients. The opinion of patients is key to the success of the NHS – to ensure that hospitals are made accountable for the level of service they offer. We want all opinions – good and bad – so that we can acknowledge good care and at the same time encourage hospitals and trusts to acknowledge issues and work to rectify them.”
Omnibus research carried out by ICM* between 30th May and 3rd June 2007 found that 91% of adults in the UK feel that the NHS should be learning directly from patients personal experiences in hospitals.
74% also stated that they would find it useful to have access to a website which provided reviews and comments that other patients had made about the hospital’s service if they were going into hospital.
www.patientopinion.org.uk has been piloted for the last 20 months in England. Currently over 4000 ratings or comments about hospital service have been posted on the site and in March this year approximately 350000 pages were viewed on the website. Over fifty organisations now contribute or subscribe to Patient Opinion including Trusts PCTs Strategic Health Authorities patient groups and GPs.
