NHS dental practices will be required to implement the Friends and Family Test from 1 April.
The regulations that put the requirement into the dental contract were signed recently by Department of Health Minister Earl Howe.
In preparing guidance for implementation, NHS England have claimed to have kept the requirements as simple and flexible as possible.
Practices will need to:
- Provide an opportunity for people who use the practice to give anonymous feedback through the Friends and Family Test
- Use the standard wording of the Friends and Family Test question
- Include at least one follow up question, which allows the opportunity to provide free text
- Submit data to NHS England each month
- Publish or display results locally.
The full details of how to implement the Friends and Family Test are in the guidance documents.
Guidance has also being published this week on how practices should submit their data each month, available here.
The Friends and Family Test has been running across parts of the NHS for two years.
More than 90% of patient feedback has been positive, providing a well-deserved pat on the back to healthcare providers.
NHS England claim that services that have been implementing it for some time report that it has provided a welcome boost in staff morale and made people feel more positive about tackling any improvements that are needed.
Every practice should have received a starter kit to help them with implementation.
This contains a feedback box, some feedback forms and some posters to help raise patient awareness about the Friends and Family Test.
The covering letter also gives further information on how to get more help and information.
