Care homes to be reviewed on Trip Advisor-style website

A website allowing residents and relatives to rate care homes in Gwent, south Wales, went live this week. 

The site, Think about me: the Good Care Guide, aims to make it easier for families to find suitable homes online. It also enables providers to respond to feedback.
 
Nurse Tanya Strange of Aneurin Bevan University Health Board, who set up the partnership with the care industry website the Good Care Guide, said the site would improve standards and ‘help celebrate the excellent and hard work that goes on in care homes’. 

The initiative grew from the Care Home Ask and Talk service, a partnership between the health board and the NHS Retirement Fellowship, whose members offer voluntary support and advocacy to care home residents. The Care Home Ask and Talk service has been shortlisted for the experience of care category in the Nursing Standard Nurse of the Year Awards 2015.
 
Ms Strange said: ‘We know from this work that the biggest thing for people was transition, making the decision to move to a nursing home was difficult enough, but we heard harrowing stories of the results of poor information.

‘Relatives told us they wanted to look online, not at inspection reports or at the homes' own marketing, but to real-life feedback from the people who lived there.’
 
The site allows relatives and residents to review a care home but the provider can also comment. ‘It was critical that it was transparent and that nurses can respond,’ said Ms Strange. ‘As nurses, we have a responsibility to collect third-party feedback and act on it. And this can help us meet the duty of candour that is central to our code.’
 
The nine-month pilot has been funded by Health Technology Challenge Wales. If deemed successful, the guide will be expanded across the country.
 
Welsh health and social services minister Mark Drakeford welcomed the initiative. He said: ‘Choosing a care home sometimes has to be done quickly and often in stressful circumstances. I want to make sure that when people move in they do so as a positive choice and that living there is a positive experience.’

Visit the website: www.goodcareguide.co.uk