Getting the real experiences of your service users

Sheringham Medical Practice, Norfolk - 'Patient Satisfaction with the GP Booking System'

The practice introduced a new booking system and wanted to determine if patients were satisfied with it, what they liked best and what they felt could be improved.  UserViews worked with the practice and representatives of their patient participation group to design a survey, which was sent to 1,000 patients who had had recent experience of using the system.  The findings have helped the practice to obtain an independent view of their patients' views and opinions. 

Bedfordshire County Council - Consultation on SOVA

BCC wanted to explore the effectiveness of their new multi-agency protocol for the Safeguarding of Vulnerable Adults (SOVA).  UserViews conducted 7 face-to-face interviews and six discussion group with people who had direct experience of reporting abuse.  As a result of the findings BCC now have service users sitting on their SOVA board and have also issued new information to the public about SOVA based on what the public felt would be useful to them. 

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust - 'Patient Satisfaction Survey'

Essex & Herts Air Ambulance Trust wanted to gain an insight into how the service it provides was viewed from the patients' perspective.  UserViews undertook a postal questionnaire and conducted 9 face-to-face interviews with patients who had used their service between a five-month period in 2009.  The Trust found the results very insightful and have now incorporated the feedback from patients into the training programme for medics. (July 2009)

Suffolk Mental Health Partnership Trust - 'Respect for Dementia'

SMHP were planning to run a campaign about dementia and asked UserViews to interview family carers of people with dementia and to facilitate two discussion groups.  The aim was to find out what were the daily challenges of coping with dementia.  The findings resulted in the Trust holding a campaign to address the stigma attached to dementia.  This campaign has recently won first prize in the Health Enterprise East Awards.