Confidential conversations that can only be held in public??

One of the great things about building a platform like Patient Opinion is that people are always finding wonderful new of ways to use it that we have never thought of. Like the young couple using an addiction service who had a baby just 5 weeks old. They had had a few slip ups and used a bit of this and that other than their prescribed methadone. Terrified of having positive urines and loosing their beautiful new baby they could not ask their drug workers because then the cat might have been out of the bag. But at the same time they desperately wanted help.

The answer turned out to be sharing their story on Patient Opinion. They could see that the clinic was run by  PCAS who had a great record of responding to other requests on Patient Opinion, so they posted their story anonymously but publicly. That way they could get find out whether coming clean would end up with them loosing their baby. What is more everyone else can see the response too – which may be reassuring to other mums-to-be with an addiction problem. And one more vulnerable couple and baby helped to keep going, to not give up. 

Generic responses won’t do in these circumstances. Patients and service users need to know how this clinic, this medical director would handle the situation, not what NICE or the PCT recommends. And they will use the quality of the response to decide whether it’s to be trusted or yet more corporate speak.  Of course it’s not just substance misusers. If I had to have a coronary bypass graft, I’d want to know what the surgeon's mortality rate was and how many of these operations she did per year. But being British I’d be probably be too embarrassed to ask. But I would be happy to punt the question on Patient Opinion anonymously. And may be get an answer that helps everyone using that service.  

May be confidential conversations that can only be asked in public will turn out to be really common. And important.