Patient Stories

We strive to provide the best quality care and treatment possible for every patient across the Scottish Borders.

Hearing about your experiences of our services and our staff helps us learn and improve by sharing the feedback with our teams.

Care Opinion is an online platform where you can share your experience of the care you or your loved ones have received. You can let us know what went well and what we could do to make our services even better, based on your own experience.

In one of this month’s stories, a mum discussed the “exceptional” care that was given to her 5-year-old son in the Day Procedure Unit at the BGH. Mum said she was initially concerned that her son’s additional needs may make the experience difficult, but that she shouldn’t have worried as the staff went “above and beyond” to ensure that her son was “as calm and happy as possible”. She said that the nurses were great with him and were “happy and upbeat” and that they explained things well and checked in with him regularly. She also shared positive feedback about one of our anaesthetists, whose “compassion and understanding” in dealing with her son’s additional needs made the day “much less stressful”.

In another story, someone spoke about the positive experience they had with a GP who is part of our Borders Emergency Care Service (BECS). The person said that it was obvious the GP was “very well informed” about mental health and trauma, which was “fantastic”. They also said that the GP “really listened” and provided them with a “good insight” and a “better plan for moving forward in the future”. The person said that they left their appointment feeling “hopeful” and that it meant a lot that the GP had been so understanding, patient and taken the time to chat to them.

Other feedback this month included someone speaking positively about their experience with our Wellbeing Service. The person said that they “cannot stress enough” how helpful the service has been in helping them to understand their behaviour over the last 50 years and that their Wellbeing Advisor has helped them to “deal with their emotions” and “increase their self-esteem”. They said that their advisor was “an instant friendly face” who was “approachable, non-judgemental and guided [them] in exactly the way [they] needed”. The person said that they have now “taken control” of their situation and that although there is still work to do, they have found ways to work through their issues.

We always look forward to receiving feedback from our patients, as having these open and honest conversations about your care lets us know what we are doing well and what we can improve on too. Positive feedback has a hugely beneficial impact on staff morale, while constructive feedback gives us an opportunity to learn from your experiences and make our future patients’ experiences even better.

If you or one of your family members has recently used one of our services, please take the time to tell us your story at www.careopinion.org.uk.

Since we started using Care Opinion to gather your feedback, we have received 1,321 stories. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to tell us about your experience.