Barely a quarter of doctors take an interest in feedback on rating sites on the internet, researchers report today.
Most doctors expect feedback to be negative and discourage patients from using rating sites, including the official NHS website, according to a study by Warwick University.
Researchers said the NHS should take steps to ensure doctors knew about feedback – or else it was "pointless."
Researcher Dr Helen Atherton, from Warwick Medical School, conducted a survey of 1,000 registered doctors and 749 nurses and midwives.
She found that just 20.5% of doctors and 11.1% of nurses were aware of feedback about themselves.
A slightly larger number, 27.7% of doctors, knew about feedback left about episodes of care they had been involved with.
Dr Atherton said the feedback was usually more positive than doctors expected.
Dr Atherton said: “We saw a lack of awareness from healthcare professionals of when feedback had been left about the care they delivered, whether as an individual or team. Overall, awareness and use by doctors is low. But we are seeing that doctors are much more negative about online feedback than nurses, and more so with GPs.
“There’s a real need that if NHS organisations are collecting this data that they need to be communicating it to frontline staff, because it’s pointless for the patients if their message isn’t getting through.”
She added: "Healthcare organisations should be putting protocols in place for this feedback and developing plans for what to do with it.
"If healthcare professionals are aware of it and take control of the process a little more by actively soliciting it then it’s more likely to be useful to them. There are positive examples of how commentary left by NHS patients on review sites have led to changes in the health service."
Online patient feedback: a cross sectional survey of the attitudes and experiences of United Kingdom health care professionals. Health Services Research & Policy 2 June 2019
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