Northern Trust reflects on five years of Care Opinion
The Northern Health and Social Care Trust is reflecting on over 3000 stories of real-life experience as it celebrates five years of Care Opinion.
The online platform was established to give patients, service users, carers and families a place to share their feedback of health and social care. It offers an important opportunity for learning, engagement and improvement, with all stories read and publicly responded to by staff.
Across many departments and services, Team North staff are trained to provide these valuable responses, including the Northern Trust’s Head of Service for Mental Health Inpatient Services, Ashleigh Moss.
She recently received a Care Opinion star responder award, reserved for those healthcare staff who provide outstanding responses to patient feedback, by demonstrating compassion, a clear plan for action, and a commitment to improving services.
Reflecting on her Care Opinion role, Ashleigh said: “Becoming a responder has given me invaluable insight into our service from a patient’s perspective. After all, they are experts by experience.
“We are committed to improving our services and the feedback we have received through Care Opinion has been instrumental in allowing us to ascertain where we could improve our care and service delivery. The engagement from our service users is vital as it helps us to create an environment where our patients are at the heart of everything we do.
“It is encouraging to hear positive comments and the staff at Holywell Hospital and Ross Thomson Unit have really appreciated knowing that the work they do is making a difference to those they care for.
“Receiving the Star Responder award came as a shock, but it is such a lovely accolade. The responses that I gave through Care Opinion hopefully highlight my passion and commitment to ensuring patient engagement and collaboration and a promise to make those changes together.”
Sarah Arthur, the Trust’s Patient Client Experience Facilitator, added: “We are delighted that Ashleigh has been named as a ‘star responder’ with the judging panel commending her warmth, openness, honesty, transparency and non-defensive response.
“They described the interaction as a real case of Care Opinion in action resulting in an opportunity for collaboration between the service and service user to make improvements which is a real success story.
“Our responses on Care Opinion show that we listen and value the insights of those we care for. Positive stories are hugely encouraging for our staff, helping overall morale and showing that their actions matter while less positive feedback helps us to identify areas for learning and improvement.”
“Since we began using Care Opinion, over 82% of stories related to the Northern Trust have outlined a positive experience which is very encouraging for us. What our patients, service users and their families can share with us is invaluable as we strive to always provide the best possible standard of compassionate care and we are very grateful to those who have taken the time to share their feedback with us.”
If you feel that you would like to share your experience with us, please go to www.careopinion.org to get started.
Working together, we can all help to make care better.
Read the Care Opinion story and Ashleigh’s response
2nd October 2025
