NHS Orkney welcomes patient opinion website

The Scottish Government’s launch of a new website that will allow NHS patients to share their experiences online has been welcomed by NHS Orkney.

The site — www.patientopinion.co.uk —  provides a confidential way for patients to share their healthcare experiences, whether good or bad, with comments then passed on to the relevant staff who can respond or use feedback to help change services.

The announcment was made on Tuesday this week and is part of a £160,000 roll out across health boards, including the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS).

NHS Orkney’s patient experience officer, Julie Tait, said: “NHS Orkney very much welcomes this initiative. Patient experience is very important in helping us shape future service changes.

“The new website is confidential and easy to use and we would strongly encourage anyone with a story, good or bad, to feed back their experience.

“There are already a number of ways patients can register their concerns or praise, but this ‘real time’ initiative will greatly improve the speed at which issues can be identified and dealt with.”