Welsh Blood Service
Donor experience
At the Welsh Blood Service, we’re always looking to learn from your experiences. To make giving feedback simple, we use our survey system in two ways:
• Handheld tablets at each donor session
• Easy QR codes that link to online surveys
We share all survey results with our leadership team and departments, as well as in our quarterly and annual reports. By listening to what you have to say, we can celebrate successes, spot areas where we can do better, and plan new ways to improve our services.
We look at the common themes in all the feedback and use that information to address concerns. By hearing from our donors, we’re able to make meaningful changes that reflect your needs and experiences.
2% of the donors who provided feedback through CIVICA indicated that they were dissatisfied with their experience.
Based on feedback received, operational managers have:
- Reviewed cleanliness of Mobile Donor Units (MDU) to ensure a high standard of cleanliness is always maintained.
- Supported staff to undertake Welsh language learning.
- Provided mobile heaters for Collections Teams.
- Undertaken a full review of venues to ensure there are no issues that would affect donor experience.
Welsh Blood Service Wall of Thanks
Every month our Wall of Thanks intranet page is updated with the latest heartfelt messages that have been shared with us by patients. The messages recognise the amazing difference our staff make.
Complaints
We always aim to provide the best possible service, but we know sometimes things might not go as well as they should. If you're unhappy with any part of our service, we want to hear from you - your feedback helps us improve.
You can raise a concern:
• By talking to us in person
• With help from our team if needed
We follow the Wales Putting Things Right guidelines, which means:
• We'll acknowledge your concern quickly
• We'll look into what happened thoroughly
• We'll be open and clear about what we find
• We'll tell you what we're doing to make things better
Between October and December 2024, we received 11 complaints - that's about 0.05% of donors. While this is a small number, each concern matters to us and helps us learn how to improve our service.
- 11 complaints managed as Early Resolution - within 2 working days.
- 0 complaints managed formally under the Welsh Putting Things Right regulations
- 0 complaints reopened, indicating that complaints were managed satisfactorily.
We’ve been listening to your concerns and have made some key changes to improve your donor experience:
- Operational Managers ensuring that where the start of a donation session is delayed, donors booked later in the day are, where possible, contacted to move appointments to reduce donor inconvenience and working with staff to enhance communication style and approach when donors are deferred.
- Operational Managers reminding staff of the importance of:
- Professional conduct
- Being open and honest with effective communication with our donors at the time that errors occur.
- Collections Team continuing to work in collaboration with the Planning Team to look at alternative venues across the Service, particularly in North Wales
Incidents
Making sure everyone stays safe is our top priority. That’s why we encourage our staff to report any incidents—or near misses—through our incident management system. Once an incident is reported, we:
• Investigate what happened straight away
• Address any immediate concerns
• Identify and fix any root causes to prevent it from happening again
We also share what we’ve learned with the whole organisation and track trends to help drive improvements. When something results in moderate or more serious harm, we take an even closer look, carrying out a detailed review and investigation to make sure we do everything we can to keep our donors and staff safe.