May 20, 2019 4.36 pm This story is over 58 months old

Jan Sobieraj: Your opinion on Lincolnshire’s hospitals matters to us

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United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust HQ.

The National Health Service is an institution that is valued and treasured and for those of us that are privileged enough to work within it there is a real sense of pride when we talk about the work we do and the difference we can make to people’s lives.

With this pride comes a driving desire to be the best that we can be, and to always treat our patients in the same way that we would want a member of our family to be looked after with the highest quality of care.

Most of the time we do get it right, but when we don’t this is when feedback can really help us to learn and understand much better how it feels to be on the receiving end of our care and how we can improve.

Despite now receiving more than 75,000 compliments over the last four years we want to know more and this is why we need your help. By hearing firsthand about patient experience we can learn so much about what we need to improve and also what we do well.

One way we do this is through our friends and family test. This asks our patients if they would recommend the services they have used to their friends and family and I am really proud to say that we consistently receive an average score of more than nine out of 10. This is reinforced by the fact that we receive over 40 compliments for every complaint that we receive – and I am sure there are many times when our staff are praised, say thank you and then go about their work without mentioning to anyone else or recording it.

There are many organisations and companies that can only dream of receiving such feedback and yet I don’t think this is reflected in the public’s opinion of our trust. The majority of people receive the highest quality of care, but I’m told many believe that they must be the ‘lucky one’ or the exception to the rule. But our results show that this is not the case.

We know there is still much more that we can do better, which is why we value feedback so much and this is where I would like to ask for the public’s help. We are inviting all Lincolnshire residents to have their say on the reputation of United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust through an online survey. You don’t have to be a patient, you just need to have a view.

Before we can build on our reputation, we want to find out what people think about how trustworthy and credible we are, if we spend money wisely and if people think we provide high quality care.

We want to better understand the public’s perception and how people form opinions about ULHT hospitals – Lincoln County Hospital, Pilgrim Hospital, Boston, Grantham and District Hospital and our services at County Hospital Louth – with the aim of making improvements.

The survey should only take a few minutes, but will provide us with important information, so please feel free to share your views and I promise that we will continue to listen and make them count.

The online survey is open until Wednesday 19 June 2019 and is available to complete here.

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Jan Sobieraj is the chief executive of United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust.