Feedback from 'patients' or those you provide public health services to

At least once in each five-year cycle, a public health practitioner who provides direct care to patients must collect and reflect upon feedback from their patients. 

A public health practitioner who does not provide direct care to patients should, at least once in each five-year cycle, consider how to collect feedback from those they provide medical services to and, where feasible, they should collect and reflect upon such feedback.

The exact requirements of this can vary and this is something you may need to discuss with your appraiser and Responsible Officer (RO). We encourage you to think broadly about what constitutes a patient, or customer, in your practice. For example, you might want to collect feedback from:

• Clients, suppliers and customers
• Appraisees
• Students
• Recipients of reports you provide

The GMC has written case studies for doctors whose patients can’t give feedback or who have limited patient contact. You can access this resource here. One scenario is written from the perspective of a Director of Public Health which you can read here.

Some public health professionals choose to meet this requirement by including the above groups in their ‘colleague feedback’ exercise (see the next section).  This is acceptable, but should not compromise the collection of good quality feedback from colleagues.

Some practitioners may wish to collect and reflect on such feedback more often, especially where there has been a significant change in their scope of work.

Updated on 20/01/2023