What can we do for Agnes’s relative?

What can we do for Agnes’s relative?

 “M, Give me a bell about this. What can we do for Agnes's relative ?

This was the immediate response from Neil, our orthopaedic service manager at Raigmore Hospital (Inverness), when he read the Patient Opinion alert.

Earlier in the day he had also followed up with actions for another patient who had shared their experiences through Patient Opinion resulting in him speaking to the orthopaedic consultants and others to get to the heart of the matter.  He then phoned the patient to agree the next steps. When I thanked Neil for his help he replied:

“No problem M, it’s the most rewarding part of the job - speaking to patients and seeing how the Team can help.”

He is going to be one of our responders. This is kind of where we would like to get to with Patient Opinion and indeed all feed-back. The staff on the ground walking the patch and dealing directly with patients and families, supported, encouraged and coached by our senior leaders and others. Senior leaders can't do this by sitting behind a desk. So they need to be out and about leading by example.

Locally we are living this through our Highland Quality Approach where we are working improving the quality of care we provide and to do so in a safe, effective and caring way.

We have been asking patients and the public: is having a statement about being person-centred stating the bleeding  obvious? Their feed-back was encouraging, for example:

"I think it’s reassuring that this is the approach we use.  It shows we value every individual and their individual needs. We all are different and respond to situations in our own unique way.  There isn’t a ‘one size fits all’ when supporting people."

We know we don’t always get things right but we do always want feed-back: good and bad, as well as ideas and observations. So I would strongly encourage colleagues across the NHS to embrace feed-back, in all its guises, just as Neil has, and ask patients relatives to feed-back, just as Agnes's relative did.

Neil again: "When we get things wrong everyone hurts. Taking any decision that negatively affects a patient and their families - be it a cancellation of a procedure, delays, poor communication. It also really affects the team. It’s the worst part of the job and everyone feels the same about it.”

We have put Patient Opinion on the home page of our website - you can't miss it!