Patient Opinion gives it to MPs

Conversations are the life blood of Patient Opinion – carrying your story to the heart of the NHS is, after all what we are all about. But why just the NHS?  Conversations are the stuff of politics and democracy too – why not share patient stories with MPs, local authorities and scrutiny committees?

From 7 July 2010 Patient Opinion will begin to do just that. We will be offering a free email alerting service to all Westminster MPs, so they can be automatically alerted to what their constituents are saying about local health services and post a response if they want. The new service is being launched next week at Portcullis House in London.

We hope that this will have many benefits. Patients stories and experiences will have greater reach and power. MPs will be able to monitor what local people think of their health services and, if they want, show that they are listening by posting comments.

Patient Opinion is already showing how stories are helping improve health care - and soon we will be able to show which local and national stakeholders are actively listening to any particular story too. Is your LINk listening? Is the provider using Patient Opinion? Is your MP in the loop?

All this is an exciting new development in online civic engagement – a way to use the power of voice to promote discussion and help bring a truly patient-centred health service into being.

The Big Society is often seen as being about two things: freeing data, so that it can be mashed up and better used. And freeing the energy of citizens, via social enterprises, to solve problems in new ways.

We think it is also about creating structured, helpful, local conversations that create more engagement and many more service improvements at much lower cost than has ever been possible before.