Trust/Practice: Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

What did they do?

Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust recognises that there are many ways that patients can feedback. They wanted to make sure they were reviewing everything that patients were saying so they could get a full picture of care. This was achieved by making it as simple as possible for services to consider all sources of patient feedback for service improvement, including the FFT, by designing a simple workbook that services could use.

All individual services complete a six-monthly ‘Patient and Public Involvement Workbook’. This has separate sections for complaints, PALS, focus groups, local surveys and of course the FFT. Services are asked what the different pieces of feedback are highlighting for them, so they can triangulate what they are hearing from patients across all the different types of feedback.

What did they learn?

The main learning point was that if services are given the time to consider their own feedback, they can engage with it and take ownership of it by looking at themes and working out how this can lead to changes. For example, using this approach, the Somerset Wide Integrated Sexual Health Service made changes to their clinic times and their approach to privacy and dignity, as well as opening new clinics, expanding their online booking service, adding another booking line and introducing a system so that patients don’t have to share private information in a public waiting room.