Final Report > Recommendations > Respect and honesty > Feedback from patients

Feedback from patients

28. Patients must be given the opportunity to pass on views on the service which they have received: all parts of the NHS should routinely seek and act on feedback from patients as to their views of the service. In addition, formal, systematic structured surveys of patients' experience of their care (not merely satisfaction surveys) should be routinely conducted across the NHS and the results made public.
29. NHS trusts and primary care trusts must have systems which ensure that patients know where and to whom to go when they need further information or explanation.
30. We endorse the initiative in `The NHS Plan' to establish a Patient Advocacy and Liaison Service in every NHS trust and primary care trust. The establishment of this service should be implemented in full as quickly as possible. Once established, patient advocacy and liaison services must be given secure funding to enable them to provide an effective service to patients.
31. Trusts and primary care trusts must have systems for publishing periodic reports on patients' views and suggestions, including information about the action taken in the light of them. (See further the Recommendations on care of an appropriate standard.)
32. So as to provide for patients an effective, efficient and seamless information and advocacy service, consideration should be given to how the various patient advocacy and liaison services in a given geographical area could most effectively collaborate, including in relation to the provision of information for patients and the public.