How do feedback authors in Northern Ireland view Care Opinion?

Care Opinion launched in Northern Ireland in August 2020.

Four months ago, in July 2021, I blogged about how health/care staff in Northern Ireland view Care Opinion.

We are now able to complete the picture, to include the views of people in Northern Ireland who have used Care Opinion to share feedback online about their care.

As ever, very many thanks to everyone who took the time to respond.

Survey results

In October we surveyed 448 people in Northern Ireland who had shared feedback on Care Opinion. 27% of these responded to our survey. A large majority reported a positive experience of online feedback.

94% of respondents were glad they had used Care Opinion and 91% would use it again.

Users were strongly motivated by a small number of positive, prosocial goals:

• praising health/care staff
• informing other patients
• improving standards of care

These findings are consistent with Oxford University’s previous research on why people post feedback online. Three-quarters of users felt they achieved their aims in using the platform, and a similar proportion felt their feedback had been heard and understood by health/care staff.

Our respondents placed strong emphasis on knowing that their feedback, whether positive or negative, had reached the staff or services it related to. They valued a timely, personal response from relevant services, where necessary acknowledging the issues raised and describing improvement plans.

This study suggests that Care Opinion has already established trust and approval with many health/care users. It deepens our understanding of what people hope to achieve with their feedback, and how a moderated feedback platform can achieve high levels of user trust and satisfaction. It also indicates how, in many ways, people’s satisfaction with Care Opinion is always going to depend strongly on how health/care staff engage with online feedback.

These findings are very encouraging as we continue to work with the Public Health Agency in Northern Ireland to extend the awareness, use and impact of online feedback across the system. In addition, the findings are already stimulating new developments for Care Opinion’s online platform.

Full report

You can download the full results of this survey below.

Care Opinion survey of NI story authors, October 2021 (Word document)