Patients put pen to paper to say thank you
Monday, 11 January, 2016
Dom Ford, Paramedic, Chesterfield
The number of people getting in touch with East Midlands Ambulance Service to say thank you for the care they’ve received has risen significantly.
The patient experience team says that while it is common to receive more compliments than complaints, they’re dealing with more compliments this financial year than ever before (from April 2015).
Between April and June 2015 (the first quarter), EMAS received 268 compliments compared to 13 complaints. This equates to a ratio of 20 compliments for every complaint (20:1), something never before seen at the Trust.
In the second quarter of the year (July, August September), the number of compliments rose again to 302 compared to 34 complaints.
Clare Wade, Patient Safety & Experience Manager, says: “To receive so many compliments is a real credit to the hard work of crews who are at the frontline of patient care. However, we do take every complaint very seriously and aim to learn everything we can in order to improve our services.
“When people feel that they’ve received excellent care that has gone above and beyond what they expected, they write in to say thank you and we really appreciate this. People are often most appreciative of our staff being courteous, supportive and showing empathy.”
Compliments were for all of the EMAS services; 999 emergency calls, patient transport and call handlers. Words frequently used to praise staff included professional, excellent, caring, kind, grateful and kind.
Patients and members of the public are actively encouraged to give feedback about the care they received from the ambulance service. They can do that via the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) – email: emas.pals@nhs.net or call at local rate on 0333 012 4216 Dominic Ford, Team Leader for North Derbyshire, said: “It’s great that we receive the thank you letters and compliments from the patients that we treat. It’s a credit to all the hard working frontline staff. The thank you letters and compliments make the crews feel appreciated by the many patients that we treat, and sometimes in difficult circumstances.”
