Friends and Family Test (FFT)

The Friends and Family Test is a national initiative launched in 2013, to capture feedback from patients about recent care and treatment they had received from a healthcare provider.

It’s called the Friends and Family Test because patients were asked if they would recommend the healthcare provider they had seen to friends and family if they needed similar care or treatment. Following a review it was changed in 2020 and now asks patients the following question:

“Overall, how was your experience of our service?”

You can rate your response from ‘very good’ to ‘very poor’ and additionally, there is an opportunity for you to tell us:

  • Why you gave that score
  • What could we have done better/differently
  • If you have any compliments for a staff member or a team

The responses you give are completely anonymous – you cannot be identified from your feedback.

Our positive response rate
93.19%

How we use your feedback

Your responses help us to understand what we are doing well, and where there might be opportunities to enhance or improve our services and facilities. We use these results in a variety of ways, including divisional performance meetings and in our Patient Experience reports, to help inform colleagues about how patients feel about the care and treatment we provide. The positive feedback we receive helps us to know what a difference our care meant to patients, whilst less positive feedback tells us where improvements may be needed.


How to give your feedback

There are a number of ways patients can leave us feedback about their care and treatment:

  • Text message (SMS)
  • Interactive voice messaging
  • Completing online
  • Completing a paper questionnaire
Text message (SMS)

If you have recently been discharged from a hospital ward, visited one of our Emergency Departments (A&E) , attended an Outpatient Department or Community based appointment or used our Maternity Services, you might receive a text message on your mobile from the number 80870.

Responding to the text message is free. Please disregard any alerts that suggest you may be charged. These are automated generic warnings by some mobile networks for all “short code” numbers. If your mobile network does not allow you to respond to the text, you can ask your mobile provider to unblock the number 80870, or you can complete online by selecting the appropriate link below.

Interactive voice messaging 

If we do not have a mobile number for you, you may receive an automated call to your home telephone number (landline).

Can I opt out?

We recognise that not all patients wish to complete the Friends and Family Test and if you wish to opt out from giving feedback after receiving a text message or an automated call from us, you can:

  • Reply with STOP if you receive a text message; or
  • Use the OPT OUT feature if you are called on your landline.
Completing online

Please use these links to complete the Friends and Family Test on your mobile phone, tablet, or computer:

I have been admitted to, or discharged from, a hospital ward:

I attended the Emergency Department:

I attended an Outpatient appointment:

I was visited at home/attended an appointment in the community:

I have used the Maternity service:

I have used the Long COVID service:

Completing a paper questionnaire

All of our departments have paper copies of the Friends and Family Test. If you would prefer to provide your feedback on paper before you leave the hospital, please ask a member of staff.


Our external provider and your information

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust asks Healthcare Communications to contact patients by text message and automated telephone calls on our behalf  to seek feedback on care and treatment provided. All patient contact details are encrypted before they are securely transferred and held in accordance with the Data Protection Act (1998).


Our Friends and Family Test results

You can see all our results on the NHS England website.

Contact details

If you have any questions or queries, please contact our Patient Feedback Team: