Andrew Lansley highlights role of iWantGreatCare in NHS

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has announced that measuring the quality of care delivered by the NHS will be focused on the experience of patients.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Mr Lansley said patients would be asked: "Was the service and experience you had good or not?", and variants of this metric will be fundamental to assessments of standards across all primary, secondary and community services.

Highlighting iWantGreatCare as an organisation leading the way in both collecting and openly sharing such metrics - to the benefit of organisations, doctors and patients - the Secretary of State identified end of life care and paediatrics as examples of the importance of putting the perceptions of patients, families and carers at the centre of drives to improve quality and reduce variation.

Paediatrics and palliative care are of course two of the areas in which iWantGreatCare has pioneered the role of real-time, open feedback of patient experience - delivering improvements in staff morale and service quality as a direct result.

Working with hospitals and community providers across the NHS and private healthcare, iWantGreatCare enables organisations to truly understand the experience of their patients in a directly comparative way - whilst at the same time giving the public the ability to make an informed choice about where they are cared for. Reviews of individual doctors give real power to the public in choosing the type of doctor they would prefer, ensuring that the very best doctors are highlighted and recognised for their huge commitment to patients.

“We’ll be undertaking a consistent national survey of the bereaved relatives of people who received end of life care. Asking them, after a suitable passage of time, what was their loved one’s experience of care and how well were they looked after towards the end of life.”
[We will] ask children about their experience. So 5 to 16-year-olds would be part of this, with their parents, so for the first time we’ll be measuring as part of the outcomes, the children’s experience of their care.”

Rt Hon Andrew Lansley, 7th December, 2011

Professional and independent sites identify the “bad apples”

For those trying to find a good solicitor or lawyer there is, as yet, nothing equivalent to iWantGreatCare.

However, the approach (and technology) used by IWGC has been identified as key to creating a quality service that would benefit both the public and the legal profession:

“The idea of an impartial forum not sponsored or linked in anyway to the Law Society, where people can seek justice for disgraceful advice from a lawyer has its merits. Set up professionally and moderated independently, this kind of facility could help stamp out the bad apples that give the legal profession a bad name”

Being impartial, moderated and professional are at the heart of the IWGC vision. We believe that only by making such principles core to everything we do can the service help patients find great care, and at the same time help doctors and organisations ensure excellent patient experience.

Conference speech: transparency, experience and quality care

The Secretary of State for Health invited Dr Neil Bacon, Founder of iWantGreatCare, to share the stage with him last week asking him to speak on the role of transparency of outcomes, patient experience and choice in improving UK healthcare.

Since 2008, iWantGreatCare has helped shape the agenda in enabling the NHS to harness the power of patient experience - and is the only service that enables Commissioners and Trusts to capture quantitative and qualitative feedback in real time across all inpatient and outpatient services. Thus it is exciting to see this position of understanding and thought leadership being recognised not only by the Secretary of State, but also by those Trusts now deploying the IWGC system to ensure excellent patient experience, and to meet the needs of consultant revalidation.

Public to get much more information on GPs

Longstanding concerns about the variability in performance of GPs “have reached new heights” according to the Guardian. They cite the evidence that nearly half of all complaints about doctors to the GMC concern GPs (who only make up a third of UK doctors), and that negligence claims against GPs are soaring.

These concerns, combined with the Government’s drive for choice and transparency are driving initiatives to give the public much better information on which to choose their family doctor. A range of data will soon be available to help people ensure they are choosing the best doctor for themselves and their family and to help doctors themselves know just how well they are performing compared to their peers.

The NHS Medical Director, Sir Bruce Keogh, has told GPs that patients should be able to get information about the performance of their own doctors:

"The NHS is owned by the people of this country, who are its shareholders, and at times its reluctant or distressed customers. People are now their own bankers, their own travel agents and their own checkout cashiers. They expect to have data immediately available to make choices.”

Empowering patient choice and highlighting the very best doctors who do so much for their patients is of course at the heart of the iWantGreatCare vision. We will be combining the forthcoming NHS data on GPs with our unique, detailed ratings and reviews from patients to ensure that both patients and doctors can see who is delivering great care.

Do you have a great doctor? Let others know by adding a review of them now on iWantGreatCare - it takes less than two minutes and gives you a public way to say thank you for all their hard work.

Why and when should doctors respond to reviews?

Earlier this year iWantGreatCare introduced the ability for doctors to post responses directly to reviews and comments about their care.

This was something that had been requested often but interestingly is less used, than asked for, by doctors (so far). The initial responses made by doctors have all been made to patient reviews that were less than positive, or raised concerns and misunderstandings. The responses made so far by doctors have been excellent: open, honest and engaging. It is clear that the best doctors appreciate being able to respond instantly and directly to patient concerns and in a way that is transparent to the wider public. Not only does this impress and build confidence with the individual patient who provided the initial review, but it also provides an innovative way to increase trust amongst those who are due to see that doctor, or those who are trying to make a choice about which doctor to be referred to.

However, there is a larger opportunity which the best doctors and organisations will I am sure increasingly use and that is to add comments and responses to a whole range of reviews - not just to those that highlight problems or concerns. Outside of healthcare those organisations that really get how to engage and build a relationship with users know the power of responding not only to “complaints”, but also to positive comments and general feedback.

Of course, it will not be practical to respond to every piece of feedback, but the occasional “thank you, glad to hear things are going well”, or “I’m glad your experience of the hospital was good, let us know if there is anything more we can do”, is a) the right thing to do and b) will make a huge and real difference to the perception of those making a choice about where they go for care.

iWantGreatCare makes it easy and quick for doctors to securely respond to reviews they receive.

Doctors - start using IWGC today

Quick guide to benefits (for you and your patients) of using iWantGreatCare.

Choice in healthcare empowers the public

The Cabinet Office and the Government’s office of Fair Trading recently held a seminar looking at the importance and role of services like iWantGreatCare in helping the public get better services, including healthcare. The resulting report outlines how and why such an approach is good for the public and creates healthy competition - as well as considering concerns.

iWantGreatCare is used as an example of ways to increase competition and choice in healthcare.

“...consumer choice in public services will only bring benefits if that choice is informed and effective. Active consumers switching from poor performing providers to those that offer better service or value for money can contribute towards growth through increased efficiency in the delivery of public services.”