A troubled hospital trust is changing the way it collects feedback in a bid to improve the service it provides.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust, which runs Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital among others, is currently one of 14 trusts in the country being investigated over excess deaths following the mid-Staffordshire hospital scandal in which hundreds of patients died.
From Monday, all patients in acute hospital wards and A&E departments will be offered a Friends and Family Test to allow patients to feed back their views on the care or treatment they have received.
Under the new scheme they will be invited to answer one simple question – How likely are you to recommend our ward/A&E department to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?
There will also be a series of follow-up questions to provide essential details which will be used to identify and tackle concerns at an early stage in a bid to improve care.
Director of Nursing at the trust Eiri Jones said: “Regular and timely feedback from our patients about their care and treatment they have received is extremely important and valuable to us and methods such as the Friends and Family Test allows us to understand patients’ experiences and take immediate action to tackle areas of weakness or build on success.”