Liverpool becomes first city with whole NHS signed up to hear patient stories

Posted 22nd March 2016

The Liverpool area has become the first in the UK to have all NHS trusts - including The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust - signed up to a service that enables them to hear from patients, and use this feedback help improve their services.

So far 1,500 patients from Liverpool have told their story on the Patient Opinion website. An aim of this work is to see this rise to over 5,000 in the coming year.

Working with independent feedback website Patient Opinion, NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the nine trusts involved in the project are asking the public to share a story, good or bad, about their healthcare. Liverpool is the only city in the UK currently offering this service to all patients, in a move which could transform the care patients receive.

Patients across the region are guaranteed a response to the feedback they share on the Patient Opinion website – with many of these stories leading to a change in the services delivered.

People can feed back online at www.patientopinion.org.uk, or in writing through freepost leaflets or by phone, using Freephone number 0800 122 3135.

NHS Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is responsible for commissioning (planning and buying) hospital and community health services for the people of Liverpool. It has a budget of around £840m a year. The CCG is made up of representatives from each of the city’s 93 GP practices, and is led by a Governing Body consisting of GPs from across the city.

The nine trusts involved in the Patient Opinion programme are:

  • Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust
  • Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust
  • Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
  • Liverpool Womens NHS Foundation Trust
  • Mersey Care NHS Trust
  • The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust
  • The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust
  • The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust

Patient Opinion (www.patientopinion.org.uk) is a not-for-profit social enterprise founded in 2005 by Dr Paul Hodgkin. On the Patient Opinion website, patients and carers can anonymously share their experiences of health services. These stories are sent to the appropriate staff member, who can respond to the patient and use feedback to improve services.