Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust Quality Account 2016-2017

Learning from our patients’ experience
During 2016/2017 we worked hard to develop the ways in which patient feedback is collated, and
the ways in which it is shared with the organisation and used to inform change.
Over the past 12 months we have revolutionised the ways in which we actively collect patient
feedback each month, taking on a three-pronged approach:
• The Friends & Family Test (FFT)
• The Real Time Survey
• The Right Time Survey
The Friends & Family Test
The FFT has been running successfully within the hospital for a
number of years, however over the past year we have further developed the ways in which we
collect responses to ensure we are providing patients with every opportunity possible to give their
feedback. These include:
• Online survey with over 50 languages available. Online survey link displayed throughout
organisation in the two most popular languages in Northampton after English
• Children and young people’s online survey- included within text message to parents as an
additional opportunity for the child or young person to give their feedback. Includes 3
different survey options depending on the age of the child.
• iPad set up within the Radiology department.
We have now introduced a suite of postcards bespoke to NGH and the different services which
collect FFT responses. The postcards also include demographic questions which enable us to
identify recommendation rates in line with protected characteristics and demographic groups.
Our overall aim is to ensure that the information reaches the right people at the right time to be
able to make improvements based on areas of dissatisfaction.
CQC National Inpatient Survey Improvements
The CQC National Inpatient Survey is a mandatory survey undertaken each year by all hospitals
with inpatient wards. The survey produces a series of reports detailing the hospitals performance
and comparing results against the national average. The sample is typically drawn from July with
results issued to the organisations the following May/June. Results from the National Survey are
an overview of performance and do not detail individual results for each of the wards. This makes it
difficult to target improvement work, and further work needs to be undertaken to understand the
results at ward level so that we can make any improvements identified from the survey.
For this reason we have introduced two new surveys, using questions from the inpatient survey
where the trust doesn’t perform well, along with additional questions covering issues identified by
our patients as being of most importance to them.
The Real Time Survey: Introduced within the Organisation in October 2016, collecting 1:1
feedback from patients currently within inpatient wards and producing reports within 24
hours.
The Right Time Survey: Started in November 2016 collecting feedback from patients
following discharge from Adult Inpatient services and the Emergency Departments.
Further details on both of these surveys are provided below:
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