My Care Opinion Journey

My Care Opinion Journey........

As the Hospital Manager at West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance, I was approached by the Patient and Family Experience Team and asked if I would like to become a Care Opinion responder.

At the time I had the usual concerns around time and workload and whether it was even feasible that I would be in a position to respond to the stories, however; it was extremely difficult to refuse, given the fantastic negotiating skills of the lovely Jess in the Patient Experience Team.  So I undertook the training, which was relatively quick and easy and my journey began…….

Six months on and all I can say is that I now realise all of my concerns were completely unfounded. The system itself is an absolute breeze, easy to use, (even for someone with my limited IT skills), easy to navigate and easy to respond.

It’s great to be able to read first-hand what our patients feel about our hospital and the services we offer. There are some great stories, many of which are positive and some that aren’t so positive but which provide a great opportunity to learn and share.

Sharing these stories with the teams on the ground is important and helps staff to fully understand and appreciate where the care they provided may have fallen short.

As the Hospital Manager it is an absolute pleasure to read these stories and it’s a fantastic platform for our patients to provide valuable feedback, which in turn allows me to share learning with staff who wouldn’t necessarily get to hear how our patients feel during their visits.

Whether their visit is as an inpatient, outpatient or as an emergency, the feedback we receive is so very valuable and means we can learn and develop our services for the benefits of our patients, continually improving how we deliver care in a responsive way.

I would actively encourage all of my colleagues to become a responder and show our service users that we’re listening, sharing and learning from their experiences, good or bad.

My advice is to embrace it, don’t fear it!