Friends and Family Feedback

What is the Friends & Family Test?

The NHS Friends and Family Test (FFT) was created to help service providers and commissioners understand whether patients are happy with the service provided, or where improvements are needed. It's a quick and anonymous way to give your views after receiving NHS care or treatment.

Since the FFT was launched in 2013, millions of patients have submitted feedback. It's used by most NHS services, including community care, hospitals, mental health services, maternity services, GP and dental practices, emergency care, and patient transport.

Results

Thank you for taking the time to complete our questionnaires. Whilst it is always nice to receive positive feedback from our patients we do appreciate all of your responses. Based on your online feedback, over the past 12 months we have received over 8,000 comments.

12 Month Summary to September 2024

Very Good	7923
Good	753
Neither good nor poor	248
Poor	109
Very Poor	163
Don't know	79

We continually review our processes and procedures to help us to provide you with the best patient experience we possibly can. Sometimes, this doesn’t always meet your expectations and here are some of the ways in which we can work together to help us to achieve this.

“Takes too long to get through to speak to someone, the treatment I received was good but not the waiting to get through”

Our telephone lines are usually very busy first thing in the morning. To save you having to wait to get through, we have recently introduced a new service which enables us to call you back.

If you need to contact us on a routine matter or wish to obtain test results, please contact us after 2 pm. Our eConsult service is available between the hours of 6am on Monday morning to 6pm on Friday evening and is a great way of providing us with all the information we need to enable us to signpost you to the most appropriate clinician. You can also use this service for administrative requests and to request fit notes.

“Reception desk unmanned due to staff shortage. This is the first point of call for both regular users but, more importantly, new patients or those new to the area and needing perhaps crucial information on navigating the complex primary care system”.

Whilst our Reception Desk is unmanned, there is a doorbell you can ring to gain our attention. It may take a few moments for us to respond as we are busy dealing with your telephone enquiries and eConsults. We are always happy to help in person if you are unable to communicate with us via these channels. Please do bear with us though during times when we are short staffed.

“You can’t see your doctor without telling the Receptionist your whole life story. I do not agree with this. Breech of patient doctor confidentiality”.

All of our Patient Co-Ordinators are highly trained and have signed a confidentiality agreement. By obtaining information from you the Triage Doctor/and or patient co-ordinators can signpost you to the most appropriate clinician to cater for your needs.

Practice List Size	Total Responses	Positive %	Negative %
18,928	753	94.69%	1.86%