I began as an intern at Patient Opinion three weeks ago and have learnt a lot working alongside Kate Ebbutt, learning how the organisation works and how our old friends, Facebook, Twitter and Blogging can help to redesign the way patients interact and gain feedback from their health services. Since starting, I have found myself straying from the entertainment section, to now searching the society and health section of the Guardian website, hoping to find out more about how a health service I always took for granted actually works.

Patient Opinion has told me that patient interaction and feedback is essential to improve services. But I’m interested in why this works. Right now, the NHS is owned by all of us – we feel pride in it (as the #welovethenhs campaign last year showed) and we want it to be great. I can’t imagine wanting to share my story, hoping to make shopping at Tesco better – but somehow it works for the NHS. We feel ownership, and that ownership makes us want to help the NHS. If the health service becomes more commercial – would we still feel that way?

The NHS Reforms have quickly become a real interest for me.The Health and Social Care Bill has fast become one of the most contentious pieces of legislation in British history. Their main proposals seem sensible; to create an independent central NHS Board which keeps an eye on spending across the country, to promote patient choice, and to reduce NHS administration costs. According to proposals, funding and commissioning local health services for patients will no longer be handled by Primary Care Trusts; instead they will be overseen by groups of GPs. However, as this is a new skill for them, GPs will need help – and this help often comes in the form of private consultancy and management companies. The concern is that this will encourage more privatisation and commercial competition.

Criticism of these changes stems from the fear that new reforms would enhance private investment, at the cost of patient welfare. Competition has become the most controversial NHS proposal by the coalition. It is fantastic for business, where it drives quality, but can the NHS be regarded as a business in which competition will flourish? As Doctor Sohom Das remarks, ‘One only has to look at the outcome of the privatization of rail services - dire quality and ever inflating fares’.

I personally feel that it is us, you and me, who make our health services great. Our engagement with the services, sharing our experiences and working collectively to make a difference is key. The question is: would we still feel like this about an NHS that expects us to act as customers, not citizens?

Patient Opinion has officially arrived in Scotland! Though, with 179 stories about Scottish NHS services on the site so far – people have already been finding their way to us to talk about Scottish health services. Now it’s my job to help the Scottish NHS health services to hear what’s being said.  

My previous role was in mental health service user involvement.  It was a great privilege when people felt able to share their stories with me and amazing to witness the impact their stories had on those delivering services. We all get so busy it’s easy to forget the seemingly small things that matter so much.

First and foremost, Patient Opinion is a place where people can speak about their experience of NHS services.    We will be looking to raise awareness of the website in a whole host of ways: talking to local community groups, contacting national charities, employing social media like Twitter.

Crucially, for the next twelve months we are going to be working in partnership with the NHS Scotland Better Together Programme to help NHS services in Scotland to hear what people are saying on Patient Opinion and to help make a difference with those stories. 

Several health boards are already getting involved in different ways: Dumfries and Galloway, Forth Valley, Scottish Ambulance Service, Golden Jubilee Hospital and the number is growing every week.    Some hope to use Patient Opinion in specific areas of their service, eg Neurology, to start with and take it from there.   

It’s great to be part of the Patient Opinion team.  As their first worker based in Scotland I am a new beastie to them and so far they have understood every word! Or so it appears! Though I haven’t unleashed the full range of my Scots vocabulary on them yet!

  This is me!

All at PO are delighted to welcome our newest team member - Gina Alexander. Gina's role is that of the Engagement and Support Officer for Scotland and Gina will responsible for driving forward the joint pilot scheme between Patient Opinion and NHS Scotland.

The Pilot is part of the NHS Scotland "Better Together Programme" which is all about ensuring Service Improvements as a result of engagement with the Public. the main PO site carries further details here>>>

Prime Minister David Cameron will today make a major speech on the future of healthcare in the United Kingdom in which he will suggest that the NHS must reform or the country as a whole will suffer. The Coalition have announced a radical shakeup of healthcare within the UK and have pledged increased health budgets, at a time when most departments face a cut, to enable these reforms to be put into practice.

"We have fallen behind the rest of Europe. We are more likely to die of cancer or heart disease. We shouldn't be aiming for second best."  Claiming that the UK has fallen behind other European nations in terms of standards and achievements the PM asserts that the NHS currently has little incentive to improve and that the new reforms will do more than simply re-badge the service, which was a feature of the last administration.

He has also dismissed claims that the reforms are too much, too soon suggesting that there is an appetite for reform within the medical profession.

Later this week ministers will publish legislation to changes the health service. Within this there are plans to scrap PCT's (Primary Care Trusts) and health authorities and that power over decisions and financial control will be handed to GP consortiums. The Government will present the Bill as a milestone in its reform agenda, but some experts have cast doubt that doctors' will be willing or able to take on new responsibilities. Mr Cameron counters however by saying that 141 GP consortiums – covering half of the country – have now volunteered to pilot the reforms.

Later in the year, the Government will publish a White Paper on yet more reforms calling for an injection of third party expertise outlining ambitious plans for charities, private companies and community groups to fund, run and in some cases even own some public services. The move is designed to break up the public sector's traditional monopoly on running services, new rules will dictate that in future a fixed proportion of services must be provided by "non-state providers". All of this harks back to Mr Cameron's "Big Society" concept. A concept that calls upon individuals and communities take more responsibility requiring the state to do less.

Patient Opinion have been at the forefront of this type of concept for the last five years - Patient Opinion is a not for profit Social Enterprise and our ethos is all about enabling patients to share their experiences of health care, and by doing so help other patients, and perhaps even change the NHS. Since our launch in 2005 we have received and collated over 45,000 patient stories and as a result of this have enabled subscribing bodies to receive feedback on their services. Some might say that we were already ahead of the government on the need for supporting the NHS from outside the state sector! To learn more about us click here

We were really pleased to hear Andrew Stott, the government's director of digital engagement, talking at the Talk About Local 2009 conference in Stoke over the weekend.

Not only a clear sense of what engagement means and what the web can offer, but a mention for Patient Opinion too. Nice!