10 Tips for Using Your CCG Subscription to its Full Potential

Having a subscription with Patient Opinion can provide many different benefits not only for health and social care providers but also for CCGs.

Sam Holden is the patient experience lead for South Devon and Torbay CCG and he recently delivered a guest WebEx to fellow CCG subscribers to highlight how he uses P.O.

This gave others a fantastic insight into the way Sam was successfully using our site to its full potential.

We strongly believe in sharing good practice and so have written this blog to share and summarise some key points and tips that Sam made for other CCG subscribers.

1. Remember, the site gives you the ability to post multiple responses, this creates the unique opportunity and platform for a constructive conversation between provider and author.

2. If you promise to make a change, set yourself a reminder to go back to the response and update the author and everyone else on the situation and how the planned change is progressing. Don’t make empty promises, or promise something and then leave them in the dark.

3. Sometimes you need to select the right person to respond to a story. For example, on a critical story a member of the PALs team sometimes just might not seem suitable. You can contact people who were personally involved in the story and ask them to respond themselves, e.g the consultant or the head of catering. This makes the author feel more valued and listened to.

4. Organise a meeting every few months to review the overall feel of the feedback you have received e.g what has been really positive and what has been negative recently.

5. Share your monthly reports with all providers on a semi regular basis, this will allow them to not only see how well they are doing, but also how others are doing -  a bit of healthy competition never hurt anybody!

6. Remember, posting quality responses to stories demonstrates that you are taking the story seriously, appreciate the author’s feedback and that you want to engage with patients and service users. The key to a quality response is often empathy.

7. The fact that the stories are anonymous often means that they can be more candid, open and honest, this is a positive thing not a negative! Use this valuable resource to its full potential.

8. Create a semi regular e.g quarterly report or blog series specifically creating a summary of changes in an accessible and clear “you said – we did” style. This is what people love to see so don't be scared to share this widely!

9. Remember that not responding to a serious story can potentially cause a lot of damage. Though this may seem obvious it is crucial to remember.

10. Create displays to let patients know that they can post their story on Patient Opinion, no promotion = no stories.  Whether it’s posters around the wards or T.V’s displaying recent stories in the waiting room. For more promotion ideas check out our recent blog here.

And finally as a last piece of advice from me, remember, we are here to help you! If you have any ideas or questions we are only a phone call away!

Of course this list isn't exhaustive, there are many more brilliant tips for using our site functions to help you receive, respond and learn from feedback in the most valuable ways possible. So keep an eye out for our upcoming subscriber support blogs for more, or give drop us an email at subscriber.support@patientopinion.org.uk