NHS turns to Facebook for maternity care feedback

by Sarah Crawley-Boevey, Brand Republic 11-Aug-09, 14:40

LONDON - An NHS trust is preparing to communicate with young mothers via a dedicated Facebook page in what it claims is the first move of its kind.

Brighton and Hove NHS is trialling a maternity services community page on the social networking site to try and generate feedback and direction for its services from young parents.

The presence has been developed by digital agency Worth.

Links to questionnaires will be included on the page and local patients encouraged to join, with feedback garnered from the site then fed into the design of the community's maternity care services.

The community page on Facebook will be ongoing but the initial wave of responses will be collected on September 15.

It will help the NHS gather parents' views on the care offered before, during and after giving birth, information which will then be fed into the local trusts' strategy to help shape maternity services in the future.

Nazma Jabbar, maternity commissioner for Brighton and Hove Primary Care Trust said: "This project supplements work we have done face to face with women and their partners throughout the city.

"Using the web enables us to hear from many more people.

"Each person has their own story and it is vital that we listen to these stories as we shape our services."