BRADFORD Teaching Hospitals is asking patients to give vital feedback on the care they have received.

A sample group of 1,700 people who received care at Bradford Royal Infirmary, St Luke’s Hospital or the district’s community hospitals during July will be contacted in September and asked about their opinions.

The survey, which comes in the form of a postal questionnaire, will be carried out by independent contractor Picker on behalf of the Foundation Trust and forms part of a series of patient surveys required by the Care Quality Commission for all NHS Acute Trusts in England.

It will look at areas such as hospital admission, pain control, communication with doctors and nurses, information, medicines, a patient's involvement in their care, the hospital environment and cleanliness, as well as the overall patient experience.

Chief Nurse Juliette Greenwood said: "We are always striving to be the best for our patients and we hope that they will help us by filling in and returning this anonymous survey as their views are vital in helping us find out what we are doing well and how we can improve.

"It is also an excellent way for patients to help their local hospitals so if you receive this survey we’d really appreciate it if you could fill it in and return it – you will be helping make the NHS better for patients in the Bradford area."

The Foundation Trust will use feedback from its 2014 national inpatient survey to improve patient care and experience as it will highlight areas where the hospital performs well and identify where improvements are needed.

Head of Patient Experience Shelley Bailey said: "Gathering patient views and experiences is very important, but it’s how we respond that makes the difference.

"We are proud of the services we provide, but we know there are areas we could improve. To help us better focus our efforts, we are working to enable more of our patients to provide feedback and are increasing awareness of how to let us know when services fall below the high standards we expect."

Following the 2013 inpatient survey where feedback said it was difficult to make a comment, complaint or suggestion, a new plain English leaflet called ‘Tell us What You Think’ and special ‘Read All About Us’ boards are now available on every ward.

A Trust spokesman said patients could feel confident that personal details would not be linked to their answers. There will also be a free helpline if people need help to complete the forms or are a non-English speaker.

Visit www.nhssurveys.org/questionnaire for more information.