CONCERNS have been raised that questioning patients about the attention they are receiving will leave NHS staff with less time to care.

Scotland's chief nursing officer, Professor Fiona McQueen, has outlined plans to display report cards outside all hospital wards showing how well wards are doing - including insight on staffing levels.

The trade union Unison and the Royal College of Nursing are broadly supportive of the move, which Professor McQueen said would involve asking patients themselves about the time staff had to meet their needs.

However, questions have been raised about the time it will take to collect the information and whether patients will feel pressure to give positive answers.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Jackson Carlaw said: “Reliable information is always useful, however we would be concerned that as questionnaires were being distributed, collected and collated nurses would be spending less time with patients.

“People are not admitted to hospital because they are short of something to do; they are sick and depending on their condition, may not be sufficiently well to fill in the report cards. I certainly know of family members who would most certainly not have been.

“Patients might also be concerned, rightly or wrongly that if they are brutally honest on a report card it may affect the care they then received and the relationships vital to that care.

“And ultimately, what would any report card actually tell us that is new?"

Dr Richard Simpson, Scottish Labour MSP and a former GP, said most patients only turned to him with concerns about hospitals once their treatment had finished and a different culture was required to make people feel they could speak up.

He said: "Once the patients feel they are in genuine partnership and everyone is trying to do their best the patients will feel genuinely encouraged to make comments knowing that they will be well received and acted upon where possible. Where they can't be acted on the staff and patients together need to be able to reflect that back to management who then have to act."

Dr Simpson stressed the importance of positive feedback from patients also being displayed.

Discussing her plans, Professor McQueen stressed it was important not to "over measure" and also expressed her intention to find a way of collecting information from patients which did not make people feel obliged to say yes.

Some systems showing how well wards are doing on areas such as healthcare infections and pressure sores are already in use in Scotland.