As part of commitment to ensuring the patient, carer and public voice is heard within the organisation, we present a patient story as a regular item at the start of each Quality and Patient Experience Committee (QPEC).

Patient stories bring experiences to life and make them accessible to other people. They encourage those that work in health and social care to focus on the patient as a whole person rather than just a clinical condition or as an outcome. We use real patients, carers and family members to tell their experience of using those services with the aim of understanding what the organisation needs to do better.

Below is a table to illustrate stories that have been presented, and future themes for the agenda.

Date	Patient story theme	Method
January 2021	Easting disorders service	Update from the eating disorders team
November 2020	Dementia: We received feedback from Minds and Voices about what it's like living with dementia, and how we can best support people living with the condition.	Video
October 2020	Wheelchair services: We heard from a service user about their experience of receiving an annual review.	Reading of a passage
September 2020	Ease of patient access for booking appointments.	Reading
July 2020	Impact of COVID-19 on the health and wellbeing of our population.	Summary of an engagemement report.
October 2019	How we are engaging with expectant mums and their families about improving maternity services through the Maternity Voices Partnership.	Video
June 2019	An Integrated Care Coordinator talked about improving care for cancer patients and frail people in the north locality.	Reading of story
April 2019	A Care Home Manager spoke about the experience of residents with dementia.	Reading of story
February 2019	Two stories relating to opiate prescribing	Reading of story
December 2018	Experience of mental health services: A mother talks about her personal experience as an adult and for her children	Reading of story
October 2018	Experience of End of life care services	Reading of story
August 2018	Accessing mental health services in times of crisis. The viewpoint of a full time carer.	Patient
June 2018	What matters to me – understanding person centred care from the viewpoint of the carer.	Video
April 2018	Continuing Health Care (CHC) assessment process.	Patient
February 2018	Safeguarding children – the voice of the looked after child.	Video
December 2017	Parent carer and special schools services.	Video

 

Next steps:

Feedback and impact.

We use real patients, carers and family members to tell their experience of using those services with the aim of understanding what the organisation needs to do better. Sometimes this may be feeding into the commissioning of services or working with providers and partners to improve patient experience.

With each patient story we formulate an action plan, and give an update at the Quality and Patient Experience Committee. We also arrange to meet the person who has kindly shared their story, on a regular basis as a critical friend of the organisation and to measure if improvements are taking place.

We are now showing Patient Stories as part of the Governing Body meeting. The first patient story was shown on 4 April 2019. It included an update on what has happened within the CCG and wider health system as a result of hearing the patient story of the mother and carer of her daughter with multiple health conditions.

Examples of how we feedback what we hear into the services

Continuing Healthcare 

Following the story presented by a service user going through the continuing health care (CHC) assessment process the Deputy Chief Nurse and Head of Engagement met with the CHC nursing team. They presented the feedback from the QPEC patient story to and ensure that the experience was shared with those delivering care. View a copy of the presentation by clicking here.

They have then continued to meet with the carer and his mother on a regular basis to understand their experiences during different stages of the process. In November they came into the office to meet the Deputy Chief Nurse and in January the Head of Engagement and Deputy Chief Nurse went to meet the subject of the patient story in her home.