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The author seems to lack knowledge of what the system is already doing with regard to patient feedback.

NHS services of all types are already rated and commented on by thousands of patients via NHS Choices website, the single portal for the NHS.

Recently published academic research shows this data - collected for over 5 years now - correlates positively to actual hospital performance.

The data is visible to all and is fed on an XML feed to the CQC each month. It in turn uses it in its risk profiling of hospitals.

Good hospital chief execs get their managers to produce a summary dashboard of the NHS Choices patient feedback results for them each quarter so they know what is going on.

The bad ones don't do anything and only find that things have gone tits up when the CQC comes knocking. Midstaffs was a prime example of this.

There are only two issues that need sorting going forward:

- can every patient who uses the NHS be encouraged to add their views to the existing database in order to give it greater force?

- can those responsible for NHS services be made to read and act on the data collected?