"Visit to Cardiology Department as an outpatient ."

Dear Mr Reed

Thank you for your feedback following a visit to the Cardiology Department at Good Hope Hospital.

I am sorry to learn that you received an unsolicited, automated phone call following your visit, which you felt was suspicious.

By way of explanation we routinely ask for feedback about patients’ experiences in many ways, largely via paper and pen at the point of discharge. The automated voice call you received is one of the ways in which we ask patients about the care and treatment they receive.

We decided to use this automated methodology more recently in order help us comply with our obligations in receiving defined number of responses and it is accepted that you did not appreciate being contacted in this way and that the calls caused unnecessary concern to you. This was not the intention at all and I am extremely sorry you were made to feel this way.

We clearly need to do more in terms of advising patients, carers and relatives of the possibility of this contact and particularly their options in opting out from being contacted. I will look into this further and I am so sorry that you were not advised as such.

By way of assurance we do have a strict information sharing protocol in place with our 3rd party contractor Healthcare Communications, who also undertake this work on behalf of a great many NHS Trusts nationwide. No details are passed to any organisation for the purposes of selling goods or services, our motivation in undertaking such work is purely to better understand the experiences of patients from as wide a sample as possible. When analysed, the data collected helps us to drive improvements in standards in our hospitals.

If you would like to contact me directly on 0121 424 0808 or by email: marie.helebert@nhs.net I can ensure that your details are removed from the database and you will not receive any other calls of this nature from our trust.

I would like to thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback regarding your recent visit and I will ensure that your feedback is forwarded to Sharon Parkinson, General Manager for Cardiology, who will communicate this to all of the Cardiology Team. Positive feedback gives a great boost to our staff who work hard to provide a positive patient experience.

I hope this is acceptable, and I look forward to hearing from you at your convenience.

Kind regards

Marie Helebert