Friends and Family Test
The NHS Friends and Family Test (FFT) is an important opportunity for you to provide feedback on the services that provide your care and treatment. Your feedback will help NHS England to improve services for everyone.
It was introduced in 2013 and asks patients whether they would recommend hospital wards, Emergency Departments and maternity services to their friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment. This means every patient in these wards and departments is able to give quick feedback on the quality of the care they receive, giving hospitals a better understanding of the needs of their patients and enabling improvements.
For more information about the programme visit NHS England.
Additional friends and family test data is published by NHS England here.
How does it work?
When you are discharged from a service, or within the 48 hours that follow, you'll be asked: "Overall, how was your experience of our service?"
You can rank your answer from "very good" to "very poor". You'll have the opportunity to explain your score by adding comments, and you may also be asked some follow-up questions. This is important because service providers can only make changes if they know exactly what is or is not working.
You may be asked to answer the question before going home, or you may be invited to do so by returning a postcard, by phone or on a website.
Women will be asked the question at four points during their maternity care:
- Antenatal care – to be surveyed at the 36 week antenatal appointment
- Birth
- Care on the postnatal ward – to be surveyed at discharge from the ward/birth unit/following a home birth
- Postnatal community care – to be surveyed at discharge from the care of the community midwifery team to the care of the health visitor/GP (usually at 10 days postnatal).
Do you have to respond to the question?
Your answer is voluntary. But if you do answer, your feedback will provide valuable information for your hospital to celebrate good practice, and identify opportunities to make improvements.
Your answer will not be traced back to you, and your details will not be passed on to anyone. A member of your family or a friend is welcome to answer the question if you are unable to.
If you feel that you should have been given the opportunity to respond but did not receive the question, please contact our Patient Experience Team.
Please also contact our Patient Experience Team if you would like more information on how the test will be carried out in our hospital.