Patient Opinion

www.patientopinion.org.uk

james.munro@patientopinion.org.uk

Presented at our conference January 2007

PPI: could the web help?

The web is transforming how we access and share information

  • Holiday and hotel reviews, book reviews, restaurant reviews…
  • Sharing pictures, videos
  • Collective creation of reputation
  • Citizen journalism

Much official health and social care information is already available online:

  • nhs.uk
  • Healthcare Commission reports
  • Social care inspection reports

But none of this comes directly from the experience of patients

PPI and the web: pros

  • A (very) public forum
  • Widely accessible, even from home
  • May allow wider participation
  • Can cope with almost infinite numbers
  • At low cost
  • Allows even quiet voices to count
  • Allows anonymity

PPI and the web: cons

  • Requires net access
  • Unfamiliar
  • Not face-to-face
  • May be harder to establish authenticity and trust

Patient Opinion A new website

  • For patients
    • to give feedback on their health services
    • to easily see what others are saying
  • For health care providers
    • to hear – and respond to – patient concerns and thank-yous
    • to compare their ratings with others

How is Patient Opinion set up?

A social enterprise – A not-for-profit business – Not a charity or a project

Independent of the NHS But sharing NHS values

Our experience to date

  • About 1,500 opinions and ratings posted in 2006
  • Much of it very positive
  • Many “thank yous”
  • Some very critical, but usually thoughtfully so
  • We are able to publish over 95%
  • Services are responding
  • Trusts are learning to respond
  • There is some wariness
  • A new style of communication is needed
  • But small changes to services are already being made

Where next?

  • Covering more services
  • Maternity, mental health, primary care…
  • Widening engagement
  • Could this be used by Links or OSCs?
  • How could patient organisations get value from this?
  • Generating real change