Providing an improved patient experience

We know that services are better when created jointly with the people that use them. This is true whether the service is provided in a traditional or virtual way.

We will ensure that we consult with patients and their carers when designing our virtual services and put in place robust processes to obtain and monitor feedback from service users.

To ensure that this happens we will have patients and quality practitioners involved in our VRI programme to ensure that the services being developed in each of our workstreams meet patient needs, provide quality care and are safe.

We will do this by using the services of patient advocates and by using patient focus groups once we start the detailed process of pathway redesign. These will be our patient experience subject matter experts.

We will also ensure that we monitor patient outcomes to ensure that we are delivering high quality, safe care.

We have also developed a series of design principles that we will follow when developing virtual services. We want patients and their carers to:

• Be able to choose how they want to interact with the Trust. Our services must ensure that people are not excluded from accessing care if they do not have access to, cannot, or do not want to, use the digital tools that enable virtual services
• Feel that they are a partner in their own health – we want our patients to be able to use virtual services so that they can play a full role in managing their conditions and are able to readily access information and advice on how to do this.
• Know what to expect and where to go to access what they need – we will clearly signpost virtual services so that they are easy to navigate and consistent across each of our specialties.
• Feel that virtual services have met their needs in a timely way. We also want patients and carers to feel that services can be accessed in a place and at a time that suits them.
• To feel that they have had a good patient experience when using virtual services. We will ensure that we have robust processes in place to obtain and monitor feedback from service users. We will also ensure that we embed kindness in our virtual services in the same way that we do with traditional models of care.