For all the face time that health secretary Andrew Lansley gets, Lib Dems can’t forget that come election time, they’ll be judged by the success or failure of the NHS reform package too.

This isn’t a reality that many members of the party are warming to. After almost a year of being cast by both the public and media in the role of scapegoat or political cover for their coalition partners, nobody can blame them for being wary.

But the Health and Social Care Bill doesn’t have to be a poisoned chalice. The Lib Dems have succeeded in securing compromises in other policy areas, and can earn the electorate’s respect by ensuring all the Government’s talk of ‘patient-centred’ reforms are backed up by real patient-centred policy.

That means listening to what patients really want.

Patient Opinion’s report ‘In their words: What patients think of our NHS’ took over 11,000 pieces of feedback on NHS services over the last five years and used it to find the main areas that are cause for concern, where patients perceive the NHS needs to improve.

Poor staff attitude was the most common complaint, raised by one in three patients who posted a negative story, and insufficient compassion and poor communication between staff and patient also rated highly.

These are all personable factors that depend on staff behaviour, not financial investment or organisational restructuring on a massive scale. By comparison, merely three per cent of negative comments raised ‘choice of provider’ as a problem.

The facts leave a gap in the market for Liberal Democrat policy makers to ensure Lansley’s conviction that improvement only comes through choice and competition does not leave patients with disintegration and disillusion.

Councillor Jon Rogers said the Department of Health proposals draw together “themes that Liberal Democrats have been campaigning on for many years such as putting patients at the heart of the NHS [and] focussing on improving outcomes rather than hitting targets”.

It is true that improving outcomes in the eyes of the patient is an improvement on chasing top down targets, but the Lib Dems need to listen to what patients are actually saying in reports like Patient Opinion’s to find out what exactly needs to be addressed to improve patients’ experience.

If they can succeed in championing the cause of patients in policy discussions, the rewards will be greater come election time.

Paul Hodgkin is a former GP and CEO of Patient Opinion

Want to share your NHS experience or compare account from other patients who were treated at your local hospital? Visit www.patientopinion.org.uk