Occasionally I realise that my Spanish O level has more uses than just helping me order tapas and beer while on holiday.  It has enabled me to read an interesting post from Javier Llinares Salas on Health 2.0. (If you don’t read Spanish you can get an idea of what’s being said by copying Javier’s post into Babelfish.) Javier talks about private web 2.0 initiatives which supplement and intend to improve the public service they focus on, which enable the public to have some control over the services they receive.  One of the examples he mentions is FixMy Street.   

Patient Opinion gets a mention from Javier, as one such tool which gives power to the patient.  For Javier, sites like Patient Opinion represent a radical change for the administration of public services, helping to move towards a truly patient-led NHS.  In his words “The revolution has begun.”  

Patient Opinion is also getting some great press from it’s inclusion in the e-Health Insider report on Web 2.0 in the health Sector, where Patient Opinion is described as

 “...a standard bearer in connecting public feedback into the development of health services”.

(thanks to Explain Health for publishing that particular quote). 

All very well of course but patients are rarely in a position have the NHS ‘handed back’ to them. They’re ill, vulnerable and frankly got more important things to do. And leaving it all with the docs still less the managers doesn’t seem like the right answer either.

So what’s to do?

Well at least part of the answer has to be to get with the web. The internet may be revolutionising banking and tearing the travel and music industries to bits, but so far the NHS — that great dowager duchess of the public services — has sailed on relatively unperturbed.

At Patient Opinion we’ve managed to learn that personal stories can have a real impact.  Just by sharing experiences, NHS organisations can be encouraged to make positive changes like providing information for maternity patients and acknowledgement of concerns.