In this month’s behind the scenes, we caught up with our Patient Experience Team.

Here, the team shares more about how they work with services to improve the things that matter to patients, carers and families, and how your feedback helps us to continually improve, by celebrating what went well and learning from what could be done better.

Who makes up the team?

We are the team behind many of the ways people can speak up, be heard and get support. This includes feedback, complaints, Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), accessibility, interpretation and translation, carers, volunteering, and spiritual care and wellbeing.

What is the main role of the Patient Experience team?

We help turn insights from people's lived experience into practical change. That means spotting themes, asking the right questions and working with services to improve the things that matter to patients, carers and families.

Our role also includes growing volunteering, so patients and staff get practical, visible support where it is needed most, and developing spiritual care and wellbeing so people have emotional, pastoral and spiritual support during difficult times.

Why is the team so important?

A good experience of care is not only about treatment. It is also about feeling listened to, respected, included and able to understand what is happening. The team helps the Trust see where care works well, where it feels harder than it should, and where change is needed.

This reaches beyond feedback, PALS and complaints. It includes making information easier to understand, improving access to interpretation, supporting reasonable adjustments, involving carers, strengthening volunteering, improving spiritual care and wellbeing, and helping services consider the environments in which people receive care.

These areas all shape how safe, supported and confident people feel during their care.

What does a typical day look like?

It can start with a call to PALS, a Care Opinion post, a complaint theme, a volunteer idea or a conversation with a ward team. From there, we may be running an improvement project, supporting a service to test a change, preparing governance reports, reviewing risks and actions, advising on accessible information, visiting a service or making sure someone gets the right support at the right time.

How does your work contribute to improving patient care?

Patient experience and patient safety are closely connected. When people understand their care, feel able to ask questions and know how to raise concerns, this can help identify risks earlier and prevent avoidable problems.

For example, improving appointment letters for Deaf patients can help people understand what will happen and what they need to do next. Better access to interpreters can reduce the risk of missed information. Recognising carers can help staff understand what matters to the person being cared for. Volunteers can help with wayfinding, reassurance and practical support, while spiritual care and wellbeing can support people through distress, bereavement or long hospital stays.

Together, this helps patients, carers and families feel safer, better informed, more included and more supported during their care.

What achievements are you most proud of?

There are some real highlights. Volunteering has grown into a more visible and better supported service with nearly 500 volunteers across the Trust. Our Care Opinion work received a Picker Experience Network Award, which recognises best practice in patient experience. We have developed the first internal professional standards for PALS, which will improve the quality of experience for patients accessing PALS. We've taken forward work to improve access for Deaf patients, including BSL-accessible feedback, appointment letters and Video Relay Service. Spiritual care and wellbeing is also growing, with work on long-stay patients and staff wellbeing.

You recently updated the Trust’s patient experience strategy - can you tell us about its importance?

Our patient experience strategy gives us a shared focus and makes clear that patient experience is owned by everyone, not just the Patient Experience Team. Every conversation, letter, appointment, ward round, waiting area and discharge plan can shape how care feels. The strategy brings together the things people tell us most often, the areas where access is not equal, and the changes we need to make across the Trust. The workplan turns that into action, from carers and accessibility to volunteering, environment, spiritual care and improvement support.

Is there anything else you’d like people to know about the team?

We do more than collect comments. We help people find answers, support staff to learn from experience and lead improvement work that makes care feel more human. Some of that is visible, like PALS, volunteering and spiritual care. Some happens behind the scenes, through standards, training, governance and improvement plans.

How to contact the team?

To contact the Patient Experience Team email rduh.patientexperience@nhs.net or visit our website.

Patient Experience team at the Royal Devon