Which recipe?Despite the use of focus groups at our hospice there had never been a user forum due to concerns that users might be too unwell or too upset to participate regularly.

Shopping for the right ingredients The project aim was to set up a Forum where service users could provide feedback on concerns and also enable the hospice to hear views on plans to develop services.

Following the recipe Current users from our outpatient service where patients are generally fitter than those from other services were targeted as the initial focus for developing a user forum. Two patients joined a project steering group and an initial meeting was held with patients, staff and volunteers to co-produce the structure of the User Forum (which patients prefer to be called ‘Feedback Group’) and how to promote attendance.

The perfect cake Eleven groups have taken place. Topics discussed have included catering, our annual quality projects, our three-year strategic plan and user submission to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Improving Access to Hospices. As a result a user is now a member of our Improving Access Project steering group, users are co-producing two other quality projects, have re-named our outpatient service as well as influenced a change to the consistency of our soups and availability of smoothies! User reported outcomes show 93% feel their views are appreciated and want to attend again. The group now takes place on two sites and also includes inpatients, discharged patients and bereaved relatives.

Wasn’t that nice!

The success of the Feedback Group has been due to consistent user steer, good inter-service teamwork, leadership and not being disheartened by initial small attendance (e.g. less than 10).