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Shortlist announced for second Friends and Family Test Awards

The non-profit Patient Experience Network has announced the shortlist for the second Friends and Family Test Awards, recognising work across the NHS to use patient and staff feedback and insight to drive improvements in services.

The first awards were presented in March.  The category winners and an overall winner for the current round of awards will be announced at a ceremony in Birmingham on 21 March as part of the Patient Experience Network National Awards.

There are five categories, spotlighting work across primary care and other services, initiatives to listen to the views of people who might otherwise be excluded through age or medical conditions, and for trusts involved in running Staff FFT.  An overall winner will also be selected.

Shortlisted entries this year include:

  • an initiative in Nottingham to reduce the time that patients have to go without food and drink prior to operations;
  • an assessment process for frail older people in Ipswich to try to provide treatment without hospitalisation;
  • an insight initiative to understand the health needs of homeless people and refugees in Leicester;
  • compassion-based training for maternity staff in Northumbria;
  • a process for turning patient feedback into action in East London;

an initiative for training non-clinical staff in a rural West Sussex GP practice to more accurately assess the needs of their patients.

One of the judges was Dan Wellings, NHS England’s Head of Insight & Feedback, who said:  “We are keen to see the NHS move forward from just collecting feedback to embedding it in ways that really help services to improve in line with the experiences and views of their patients.  This year’s entries show some fantastic work across the country and the standard is high in terms of innovative thinking, problem solving and solutions that can be transferred to other parts of the NHS.”

Shortlisted entries will all be written up into a set of national case studies, which the Patient Experience Network and NHS England will promote via their websites and in a PEN publication, and will also be featured as some good practice events around the regions next spring.