Patient Experience

Our vision is to listen to our patients and carers to ensure they are involved in every aspect of their care and the heart of every decision. 

We are passionate about patient and carer experience, and we want every one of our patients, and their relatives, to receive the best possible service when being treated at, or visiting, our hospitals. 

If you are happy with the care and treatment, we have given you, we would be delighted to hear from you. Our staff work very hard to give the best possible, quality care to our patients and greatly value your support and encouragement.  

If you or someone on your behalf has questions or is unhappy with the care you receive, we actively promote that in the first instance you talk directly to the staff involved in your treatment and care. If you do not feel able to raise your concerns directly with the staff within the ward or department where you are receiving treatment, or you do not know who to speak to, you can contact PALS here: https://www.mse.nhs.uk/pals. 

If you would like to make a complaint you can do so here: https://www.mse.nhs.uk/complaints.

Leave us feedback - the NHS Friends and Family Test

Patients and friends of family of those who have recently been seen at one of our hospitals can use the Friends and Family Test to tell us anonymously what you think about the ward or service where your loved one received care.

You can leave your feedback online.

Leave us a compliment

Our staff love to hear when they’ve done well. Whilst giving excellent treatment and care is their job, they still like to hear that a patient is happy with the care they’ve received. 

Let us know your feedback by completing this form. If you know the name(s) of the staff or department you wish to thank we can let them know and pass on your thanks. 

Complete the form below to leave our staff a compliment:

Letters to Loved Ones

Keep in touch with your friends or relatives who are staying in our hospitals by using our Letters to Loved Ones service.

If you would like to send a letter and photo, please complete the form below:

About you

Note: Questions marked by * are mandatory


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Interpreting and Translation Services

If you speak little or no English and you would prefer things to be explained in a language you are more comfortable with, we can arrange for you to have a professional interpreter at your hospital appointment. 

We can offer you interpreting in many language, this is mainly provided by telephone. We also support our patients requiring: 

  • British sign language 
  • braille 
  • large print 

If you need an interpreter or you know someone who does, please phone the clinic or ward that you are attending in advance so we can arrange the service you need. 

For more information about interpreting services, please email mse.interpreting@nhs.net. 

Accessible Information Standard

The Accessible Information Standard (AIS) means all NHS Trusts must offer reasonable adjustments to help people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss to fully understand the information we give them. It applies to communication during an appointment and any information we provide to take away. 

There are five requirements of the standard we must follow to ensure that people using our services receive information in a way they can access and understand: 

  1. Identifying needs: ask people if they have any information or communication needs, and find out how to meet their needs. 
  2. Recording needs: record those needs in a clear and standardised way in electronic and paper notes. 
  3. Flagging needs: ensure that those recorded needs are ‘highly visible’ and prompt staff to act whenever they look at a patient’s notes. 
  4. Sharing needs: include information about people’s needs when sharing information with other services or referring to other parts of the NHS and social care. 
  5. Meeting needs: take steps to ensure that people receive information that they can access and understand, and receive communication support if they need it. 

If you need any information in a different format, please ask your clinician at your next appointment. We will record your needs for all future appointments. 

One of the fundamental principles of the Standard is that our patients, service users, carers, and parents are asked to self-define their information or communication support needs and that these needs (rather than disabilities) are recorded. 

If your requirements are not being met, please let us know so we can fix this. Please talk to your clinician about this first. If you are not getting the support you need, contact our PALS team: https://www.mse.nhs.uk/pals.

Carers' passport

We have created a carers' passport, this passport is to be completed by the patient's chosen carer to provide useful information for our ward teams about their loved one.

This carers' passport will really help us to improve the experience of patients in our care as it involves their carer as a ‘partner in care’. To have a copy of our carers' passport you can download and print your editable carers passport  Carers Passport (Editable) [pdf] 653KB

Our contact details

You can get in touch with us:

  • Basildon Hospital - 01268 524900 ext 1331 
  • Broomfield Hospital - 01245 516891 
  • Southend Hospital - 01702 435555 ext 4284

Or email mse.patientexperience@nhs.net 

You can also book a virtual appointment on AttendAnywhere Monday to Friday, between 9am to 11.30am email mse.patientexperience@nhs.net to book. 

Additional help and support

Whether you are a patient, visitor or carer there may be times when you would like to talk to someone, or you need help getting some assistance or information. 

If it is information you are after, your first port of call is our Patient and Advice Liaison Service (PALS) team: https://www.mse.nhs.uk/pals. 

For spiritual, religious or pastoral support, regardless of your faith, contact our Chaplaincy team who can help you to get through what may be a difficult time: https://www.mse.nhs.uk/chaplaincy.

We recognise and value the support and expert knowledge that carers can give, we also recognise the positive impact that staff and carers working together can have on a patient's wellbeing. You can find more help if you are a carer here: https://www.mse.nhs.uk/carers