A service to encourage patients to say what they think of the standard of care at Airedale Hospital near Keighley is now available in five languages.

The new postcards to help patients complete the Friends and Family Test (FFT) have been produced in Polish, Slovakian, Urdu, Bengali and Mandarin. There is also an ‘Easy Read’ format.

All are designed to give as many patients as possible a chance to respond to the question “how likely are you to recommend our ward/department to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment?”

Each hospital ward is given a monthly score based on the satisfaction levels of patients surveyed and these are published on the NHS Choices website.

Rob Dearden, director of nursing at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We’ve started to offer the new postcards after switching to a new contractor, Direct Data Analysis, who help us to implement the FFT.

“We hope this will encourage more people to let us know what they think of our services so we can shape them to meet their needs.

“The comments and scores are rapidly available to frontline staff, so we can take practical steps to address any problems that concern patients. Positive comments have proved helpful in maintaining the morale of our hard working staff.”