Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how the findings of the friends and family test are being used to improve patient safety in the NHS.

The Friends and Family Test (FFT) was implemented as a mechanism to provide near real-time feedback to identify both good and poor quality patient experience. Whilst the FFT aims to capture overall patient experience, part of the experience that patients may choose to comment on is whether they felt their care was safe. This information can then be used by providers to consider what they do well and make improvements where feedback is less positive. Commissioners and regulators monitor the results of the FFT and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) uses the data - together with other data such as mortality rates and ‘never events’ - as part of its new ‘Hospital Intelligence Monitoring’. The monitoring service gives the CQC an understanding of areas of care that need to be further investigated by inspectors:

http://www.cqc.org.uk/public/hospital-intelligent-monitoring

In April 2014, the Staff FFT was introduced to allow staff feedback on NHS Services based on recent experience. The Staff FFT asks staff to rate and comment on where they work as a place to work and as a place of care. This information can then be used by employers to consider what they do well and make improvements where feedback is less positive.

Commissioners and regulators also monitor the results of the Staff FFT, and the CQC uses this data as part of their Intelligent Monitoring system. The response to this question is also displayed as a key patient safety indicator on NHS Choices:

http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/thenhs/patient-safety/Pages/patient-safety-indicators.aspx

In addition, hospital boards and other providers and commissioners of services can consider the results of the FFT to consider the implications for quality and safety. A NHS England review of the FFT found that it is performing well as a service improvement tool, with 85% of trusts reporting that it is being used to improve patient experience, and 78% saying that FFT has increased the emphasis placed on patient experience in their trusts.