We always want to know how we could improve. Although all our staff are working really hard to ensure you get the best care possible during your time with us, we know that there are always ways to improve what we do.

That’s why it’s so important that we hear from you what was good, and what could be better.

We are continuously trying to refine and improve our services and we can only do that it you tell us what could be better.

There are several ways you can get involved and share your story with us:

• Give feedback face to face to any of our staff
• Complete a survey during your time with us (surveys should be available no matter what area of the hospital you are in. If you can’t see one, ask a member of staff for the ‘Friends & Family Test’)
• Contact our Patient Advise & Liaison Service (PALS) They can support you if you want to share any feedback (good or bad). They are also the place to go if you wish to make a formal complaint. We constantly review the feedback we hear through PALS and work to improve the services as a result.
• If you don’t want to give feedback directly to the hospital, you could contact Healthwatch Kent. They are an independent patient organisation that gathers feedback from patients and uses it to help improve services. We have been able to improve several of our services thanks to feedback from Healthwatch. Find more information on healthwatchkent.co.uk
• Get directly involved with improving a specific service. We are often seeking people who have experience of a particular service and would be willing to work with us on a focused piece of work to improve that service.

What difference does your feedback make?

Stroke patients and their families have recently been working with us to help us design and plan our new Stroke Unit at Maidstone Hospital. Thanks to their feedback we are now working on a number of areas such as ensuring there is more visual information available about what a stroke is, quieter areas, improved support and physiotherapy on the wards. Their feedback has been invaluable and these patients will continue to be involved as we work towards a new Stroke Unit.

Patients with Learning Disabilities are working with us to help improve our leaflets and make them easier for people with learning difficulties to understand. Thanks to them, we now have leaflets in an Easy Read Format which all our patients can benefit from.