A Game changer for consumer feedback
You can provide feedback on your WA hospital experience – good or bad RIGHT NOW on a moderated, online platform. This independent platform is on www.careopinion.org.au
It is simple to use – and you remain anonymous while the service is identified. Once posted your story will be responded to by the service within 72 hours, for all to see. Responses are seen by many staff but also the Minister for Health, the Health Service Boards etc also see these stories. If there is a change made because of your story, that gets posted up too.
WA and Care Opinion
WA is the first state to have every single public hospital as a subscriber to this nation-wide website. This means that your story will be promptly read and responded to – the usual response time is within 72 hours of it being posted. There is a Care Opinion dashboard that WA Health hosts to track the uptake and implementation. We can say as independent advocates that it is changing they way our health services listen and respond to patient feedback. In 2020 the platform was renamed Care Opinion, and combined both the Patient Opinion and Care Opinion platforms into one, which provides one entry point for WA people to provide feedback on health and social care services. The possibilities for expansion are obvious – people accessing NDIS services, aged care, disability etc. etc. – all of these could be reached more easily by consumers and carers.
The Care Opinion in WA Impact Report FY20-21 provides a snapshot of how the platform was used during the financial year.
Health Consumers’ Council is a passionate advocate for the Care Opinion platform. Care Opinion is an independent, moderated platform used nationwide and was launched in Australia in 2012. It originates from the UK and is managed by passionate not for profit professionals in the UK and Australia, with the mission of enabling “people to be able to share their experiences of health and care in ways which are safe, simple, and lead to learning and change.”
Care Opinion allows people to share their stories, good and bad about their experience in health and human services. The Care Opinion staff moderate stories before posting them, and ensure that both parties are supported to have a positive, effective safety and quality discussion. Care Opinion Australia asks the health service to respond to the feedback you share, and supports them in that process. The data remains yours – should you later wish to remove your story, you can. It is published under what is known as a creative commons licence. Care Opinion works on a subscription basis, with services purchasing a licence to use it.
Sustainable Health Review and Care Opinion
The Sustainable Health Review ‘s Recommendation Four commits to new approaches to support citizen and community partnership in the design, delivery and evaluation of sustainable health and social care services and reported outcomes
One of the identified activities is the expansion of Care Opinion which can mean a number of things:
- More stories on the platform
- More frontline and lower level management staff providing responses to stories
- Expansion into WA’s social care sector
Care Opinion Virtual Q&A Event 1st June – Scotland and Care Opinion
Listen to the replay here Watch the replay hereThis Q&A Panel focused on practical insights from the experience of implementing the Care Opinion tool across Scotland’s health and social care services, from implementation to maintenance over the longer term. Prof Jason Leitch CBE is Scottish Government’s National Clinical Director of Quality & Improvement. He was joined by Shaun Maher who is Principal Lead, Quality Improvement team, NHS Education for Scotland and Strategic Adviser for Person-Centred Care and Improvement, Healthcare Quality and Strategy. Jason and Shaun shared their reflections on how embedding this tool has helped underpin a person centred health and social care system, as well as providing real life examples of the challenges and opportunities of Care Opinion.
At Care Opinion Australia’s inaugural virtual Conference held on 27th April 2021 during Patient Experience Week, Prof. Jason Leitch CBE noted that:
Care Opinion is the most important thing the Scottish Government has done for patient-centred care in the last 10 years.
He based his statement on the platform’s technical functionality and relational method of safely linking staff, system, patients and families in a way that lets organisations know what is working and what isn’t. This Q&A Panel focused on practical insights from the experience of implementing the Care Opinion tool across Scotland’s health and social care services, from implementation to maintenance over the longer term. Jason and Shaun shared their reflections on how embedding this tool has helped underpin a person centred health and social care system, and provided real life examples of the challenges and opportunities of Care Opinion.
Consumer Experience of Care Opinion
Watch this 8 minute video of Amelia explaining how she used the tool to create positive change in our health services (starts at .55 – video runs 8.5 minutes)
This service is not related to the Health Consumers’ Council. If you click one of the Care Opinion links below, you will be leaving the Health Consumers’ Council website.
For more information about Care Opinion visit www.careopinion.org.au.