The NHS Friends and Family Test is the biggest ever collection of patient views and is an important opportunity for patients and carers to provide feedback on their experiences.

The test asks: “How likely are you to recommend our ward or department to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?”, and patients answer on a scale of extremely likely to extremely unlikely.

Last year, the Friends and Family Test was successfully rolled out to University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust’s (UHB) inpatient wards and Emergency Department, and soon it will be expanded to include all Trust staff and patients with outpatient appointments.

Since April 2013, more than 14,108 UHB inpatients and 5,798 visitors to the Emergency Department have answered the question. The overall score is published each month on NHS Choices and on the Trust’s own website. Nationally, the NHS Friends and Family Test has already generated well over a million responses.

The Trust uses a number of ways to ask patients the Friends and Family Test question. 

The majority of our inpatient wards have bedside televisions and the question can be answered on the screens before patients leave the hospital.

Some areas of the hospital use paper surveys or handheld tablets, while in the Emergency Department patients receive a text message within 48 hours of discharge. There is also a postcard and a token system in place for patients who don’t have mobile phones.

Later this year, the Friends and Family Test will be rolled out to include outpatients.

There will be postcards to pick up in clinic, fill in and then drop off on the way out of the hospital building. The Friends and Family Test will also be installed on some of the self check-in kiosks and on the Trust website so patients can complete the survey after their appointment.

Some patients have already had a taste of the Friends and Family Test during special "Viewpoint Days" organised by outpatient staff. The Viewpoint Day stand, stationed in Outpatients Area 1, was manned by nursing, management and administration staff who answered queries and received feedback throughout the day.

Patients were able to fill in comment cards which included a version of the Friends and Family Test. There was also the opportunity to fill out a patient survey electronically on a handheld tablet.

We listen and act on feedback

The Friends and Family Test is just one of the ways the Trust gathers feedback from patients, carers, visitors, staff and volunteers.

Please take every opportunity to tell the hospital what you think – it can really make a difference.