What could healthcare look like if we dare to listen

Our very own Operations Manager, Kelly Turner, provided an article to the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto on listening more deeply. 

Health systems around the world are awakening to a critical truth: when we truly listen to those who use the system, we open the door to more compassionate, responsive, and equitable care. That makes the voices of patients and families critical; their experience illuminates aspects of healthcare that metrics alone cannot capture.

Stories are not simply reflections of satisfaction or dissatisfaction. They are complex, layered accounts of what matters most. When patients, family members and caregivers speak, they offer not just opinions but their insights. They bring forward evidence of how the system is working and where it is failing.

Yet today, patient and family feedback is often framed as a “nice to have” courtesy or a perfunctory compliance requirement rather than a necessary mechanism for learning and accountability. This framing fails to recognize the generative power of experience as a source of knowledge. Critical feedback is often reduced to data points rather than expanded into stories.

We at Care Opinion are seeking a shift in how feedback is both given and received. Adapted from an established UK model, our platform serves as a relational and participatory approach to system improvement, complementing existing channels by offering feedback that is grounded in storytelling. By enabling people to share their healthcare experiences publicly and anonymously, it creates a transparent space for reflection, dialogue, and shared learning between patients, families, and healthcare providers.

Stories function as a kind of moral data. They are not simply accounts of what happened; they are windows into what mattered. They draw our attention to the emotional, cultural, and interpersonal dimensions of care. The tone of a conversation, the silence in a hallway, the way someone was, or was not, included in a decision; these stories can challenge official accounts and highlight gaps that metrics often miss.

In our work with health organisations we have seen how patient stories can shape practice and policy when they are received with humility and curiosity. Culture shifts when feedback is treated not as a threat to be managed but as a relationship to be nurtured.

To treat patient and family voices as optional is to overlook a rich source of learning. It is not enough to ask people how they feel about their care—we must create mechanisms through which that feedback can lead to action. Feedback kept in the dark helps no one. But feedback made visible, contextualized by story, and used in service of learning can be transformative.

If we want a healthcare system that is truly people centred, we must treat people’s experiences as evidence. When we truly understand, we not only transform systems, we affirm our shared humanity.

You can access the full article here.