#POCO10 A Brief Summary Of Our Event And Celebration

On the 19th of November we held an event in London to celebrate Patient Opinion's tenth birthday, and bring together some brilliant minds to discuss "The Power Of Connection".

So much happened in one day, I don't quite know where to begin! But in this blog I want to share with you the key events of the day, the report, the people, the discussions, the big questions and the cake.

I've also created a storify which brings together the tweeters who were there and those who took part in our debates on the day, which you can view here.

James Munro, Patient Opinion's CEO, began the afternoon by welcoming everyone to the event and introducing Patient Opinion, where we have come from, and what we do.

Fiona McQueen, Chief Nursing Officer NHS Scotland, was our first keynote speaker. She discussed the impact that Patient Opinion has had on health and social care in Scotland.

She explained how posts on PO have helped staff respond to patients concerns fast, personally, and transparently and how the personalising effect of the technology has empowered patients and staff. While speaking in front of our banner that features Lauren's story shared about Scottish services, she explained that "PO moved things along in our NHS much more quickly than our policies, procedures and protocols ever have."

Following on from Fiona's insightful introduction, Paul Hodgkin, founder of Patient Opinion, took to the stage.

Paul addressed some compelling questions in relation to why the digital health era hasn't created a "Facebook or Uber of healthcare" and how many social media assume consumer relationships, rather than vulnerability and caring.

Using the example of Bethany Townsend, he highlighted the fundamental differences between posting about a positive, consumerist or social story on the internet and posting about something as fundamental as one's own health and healthcare experiences.

Questions were then put to Paul which led to a discussion around the relationship that healthcare staff have with using digital platforms within care, and how this affects the overall relationship with the wider public, and how this is evolving. Following on from this interesting discussion and Paul's feelings about what we at Patient Opinion have learned over the past ten years, it was time for our first panel.

The panel was chaired by Nicci Gerrard, Author and Organiser of John's Campaign. Our panellists included (left to right) Teresa Chinn, Mark Brown, Anne Cooper and Roz Davies, who were discussing the question "How are networked Citizens impacting on health/care services and culture?"

Roz Davies explained that when we are all connected as a community we feel more powerful. 

Both Annie Cooper and Teresa Chinn explained that people's lives are touched by social media and that it has become 'a key part of many people's lives'. Mark explained the difficulties involved in helping people become more networked as citizens and the different reasons why some people may not be becoming more active online. 

After our first Panel, our second key note speaker Irenie Ekkeshis took to the stage to deliver her speech that explored the "era of the citizen" and what that means for our health care both now and in the future.

Irenie explored the question by drawing on her personal health care experiences, investigating the shift from consumer to citizen and asking how we can catalyse the era of the citizen. Her discussion also highlighted the importance of giving people a voice and the agency and confidence to do so.

Then it was time for our second panel, which discussed the question "How should health/care professionals respond to a world of networked citizen voice?" Clare Horton from Guardian Healthcare Professionals Network chaired the panel that included (left to right) David Gilbert, Ben Mearns, Victoria Betton and Jocelyn Cornwell.

Victoria Betton argued that the approach should be less about industry first, less about tech first, and more about people first.

Ben Mearns felt that people with opinions about the NHS need the opportunity to talk to a real person not 'the citadel' of a faceless trust. He explained how the shift to include patient feedback "hadn't been easy" but that it is now part of his NHS trust's culture, and the feedback from Patient Opinion has gone along with an enormous positive shift in the performance and reputation of the trust.

David Gilbert talked about how his experience of healthcare has helped him understand that we can't have a "patient-centred NHS" without patients themselves helping to run it. Something which he felt goes hand in hand with the need for trustworthy platforms such as Patient Opinion to facilitate this.

Finally, James Munro took to the stage for the final speech of the day.

He talked about how Patient Opinion captures the small changes which reflect our common humanity and the "small things" which matter to all of us. James argued that the future would be less in the hype around "big data", and more in the "small data" of real people sharing real stories about their care.

You can read more about our work over the last ten years by downloading our 10 year report, The Power of Connection. It includes pieces from our subscribers, members of NHS staff, service users, ourselves and lots of interesting facts and case studies. Please feel free to read and share our report, we'd love to hear your feedback or any questions you might have, simply tweet us @patientopinion, email us info@patinetopinion.org.uk, or comment on this blog below :) 

If you came to our event we would like to thank you once again so much for being there and taking part in some really important conversations about the future of health and care services. And you can see more photos from the day below :)

All of the photos featured in this blog were taken by Robert Mason