Share Your Experience

A man is sitting in a hospital bed smiling whilst talking to a nurse in PPE. Midlands Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (MPFT) aim to provide the highest standards of care at all times. To understand if we are doing this, we actively welcome feedback from you our service users and your relatives/carers. This information enables us to review our practice and provide us with an opportunity to identify areas of learning, with a view to improving the care we provide.

To encourage more feedback on the services we provide we are updating the way we ask for feedback.

From December 2024, we have introduced a new survey provider requesting feedback to most services across the Trust. We are now able to send feedback requests via a text message to our service users. You may receive a text message containing a link to complete a short anonymous survey asking about your experience of our service. There is no charge for this, and the link will connect to your preferred internet provider. No personal identifiable data will be shared, and your telephone number will be handled securely once the text has been sent.

Civica is the organisation who will be providing the online survey platform and text messages on behalf of MPFT. They will contact you via a text message to the number recorded in your patient records. The text will say it is from MPFT and include a link directing you to the survey. You will not receive a text every time you receive a service from MPFT.

If you wish to not receive texts containing this link there is an opt out button on the link. Please click this to stop receiving them.

Please click here to read Civica’s Data Privacy Notice.

The survey is also available in other formats such as a paper survey or a QR code; these can be provided to you by the service you have seen. The team can also support you to complete this, if required.

You can also give your feedback about our services on the Care Opinion platform. Care opinion is a place where you can share your experience of health or care services. Please help us to know when we are providing good care or need to make improvements by telling us about your experience. Your story will be acknowledged by the team and feedback will be given to you if appropriate. Click here to visit the Care Opinion Platform.

If you provide feedback via Care Opinion it will be with your explicit consent. This means that you should read and accept Care Opinion's Privacy Notice before sharing your experience online.

Have a look at how using Care Opinion to give your feedback can be used to support positive change within the services you receive, by watching this video produced by Care Opinion.

Feedback

All feedback and surveys we ask you to complete include the Friends and Family Test (FFT) question. This is a national feedback survey for all NHS organisations. These surveys are anonymous and will ask for your feedback on the care we have provided, and the results will be published nationally on the NHS website

As a Trust we want to provide our service users, carers and families with the best possible experience of health care. For us to do this, we need to understand what our patients think of the care and treatment they have received. The FFT is a way of gathering this feedback, whether positive or negative and helps us to drive improvement and celebrate successes.

Surveys containing the FFT are available in all areas where you receive care and support. Please ask if you wish to give your feedback by asking for a survey, link or QR code which will take you directly to the survey page. We are also in the process of adding links to the individual service pages on our website.

If you would like more information regarding how we process your information and the privacy policy this is available on the website or by clicking here to view our Privacy Notice.

The Trust collects feedback surveys as we want to hear from you and support you to share your experiences of health and care in ways which are safe, simple, and lead to learning and change.

Put us to the test... the NHS Friends and Family Test - 2020 standard version

Put us to the test... the NHS Friends and Family Test - 2020 Mental Health Services version

1. What is Civica?

Civica is an engagement solution that the Trust has introduced to collect and understand real-time patient feedback about the services we provide, and you receive. This feedback is to identify and prioritise any risk areas and drive service improvement to improve quality. This feedback and the new way of requesting feedback will ensure as a Trust that we are actively engaging and listening to what is being said and enable us to facilitate positive change as a direct result of this feedback.

2. What is Care Opinion?

Care Opinion is an online sharing platform where you, our patients, service users, carers and families can share your stories of the care you have received anonymously across the country. Stories shared on Care Opinion are aligned to the relevant service to facilitate change and service improvement.

3. Why different systems (Care Opinion and Civica)?

Civica will send a short message service (SMS) text message to you on behalf of the Trust, this will invite you to answer survey questions about your experience within the service you have received.

Additionally, the Care Opinion website is always accessible, allowing you to share your care experiences at any time. By introducing both systems, we aim to provide multiple opportunities to share your feedback when it is convenient to you.

4. Why are we doing text message surveys?

The Trust is committed to hearing the voice of those we serve, and current methods of feedback are not resulting in high numbers of responses although those who do respond are extremely positive about the care and support, they receive.

5. What are the different type of survey requests sent to patients?

There are two types of surveys which are slightly different. One is for our inpatient services and the other for all services provided in our community bases and homes of our patients.

FFT Basic: ‘Thinking about your recent experience’
FFT Inpatient Discharge: ‘Thinking about your recent stay’

6. At what point are these surveys sent to patient?

The timing of the text messages requesting feedback has been decided by a set of rules by managers for each team/service. These rules include:

Sending a survey after a patient's first appointment
Sending a survey after a patient's discharge
Sending surveys both after a patient's first appointment and after discharge
Sending surveys every 4 months for patients in long-term care

7. Can patient opt out of receiving text messages?

Yes, patients can opt out of receiving text messages from Civica requesting feedback, this does not affect other type of text messages received by you from other clinical systems.

8. How are patients assured that link embedded in the text message isn’t scam?

The sender of message will always be MPFT NHS. You can also follow the steps to check instantly if a message is scam via this link - Get Safe Online.

9. How will patient’s data be secured?

Patient data will be anonymised and securely stored.

10. Will the survey link expire at any point?

You, your carer or family member can give feedback immediately when you receive the text message and the link will remain active indefinitely to enable it to be completed at a time suitable for you. You can access and complete the survey at any time.

11. Can patients potentially receive two text messages within a short period of time requesting for their feedback?

Yes, in certain circumstances, you may receive multiple text messages within a short period. This can occur when you may be discharged from one service and shortly after have an appointment with another. There is a 30-day rule in place for patients. This will ensure that you will not receive a request for feedback twice from the same team within 30 days.

12. What ways can patients complete FFT surveys?

In addition to receiving an SMS with a survey link, patients have several other options to provide feedback:

Online: You can access the survey directly through the trust and team webpage.
QR Codes: QR codes are available at various ward locations, which can be scanned to access the survey.
Paper Surveys: Traditional paper surveys can be completed and returned to wards and departments.
Care Opinion: Patients can also share their feedback through the Care Opinion website. Click here to visit the Care Opinion Platform.

Click to view a printer-friendly PDF version of these FAQs

Share Your Experience

Feedback

1. What is Civica?

2. What is Care Opinion?

3. Why different systems (Care Opinion and Civica)?

4. Why are we doing text message surveys?

5. What are the different type of survey requests sent to patients?

6. At what point are these surveys sent to patient?

7. Can patient opt out of receiving text messages?

8. How are patients assured that link embedded in the text message isn’t scam?

9. How will patient’s data be secured?

10. Will the survey link expire at any point?

11. Can patients potentially receive two text messages within a short period of time requesting for their feedback?

12. What ways can patients complete FFT surveys?

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Useful links

Share Your Experience

Feedback

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is Civica?

2. What is Care Opinion?

3. Why different systems (Care Opinion and Civica)?

4. Why are we doing text message surveys?

5. What are the different type of survey requests sent to patients?

6. At what point are these surveys sent to patient?

7. Can patient opt out of receiving text messages?

8. How are patients assured that link embedded in the text message isn’t scam?

9. How will patient’s data be secured?

10. Will the survey link expire at any point?

11. Can patients potentially receive two text messages within a short period of time requesting for their feedback?

12. What ways can patients complete FFT surveys?

More in this section

Learning from Complaints

Accessibility tools