FORMER patients will have the chance to meet hospital staff face-to-face next month as part of a new bid to improve the NHS service.

For the first time Bucking- hamshire Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville Hospitals, is inviting recent patients to share their experiences with hospital managers, nurses, and doctors.

It hopes to learn what went well during their time in hospital and what can be improved.

The meetings at Wycombe, Aylesbury, and Amersham next month are part of the trust's In Your Shoes initiative, which aims to improve services by listening more closely to patients.

Anne Eden, chief executive of the trust, said the views could prove the key to how services are developed in the future.

She said: "In Your Shoes offers a genuine opportunity for patients to influence how the trust delivers healthcare in the future.

"We need patients who have had a positive experience and those where the service they received didn't match up to their expectations to come forward.

"We can only improve and offer services when and how our patients want by listening and learning."

The trust is looking for a range of patients to come forward to the meetings. This includes those who had outpatient appointments, tests, surgery, or stayed in any of Bucks hospitals as an inpatient.

Each meeting will last around two hours and feature around 20 patients and 20 staff discussing experiences individually and in groups. The trust says travel costs will be paid and refreshments provided.

For more information call Sheila Jalland on 01494 734345 or email sheila.jalland@buckshosp.nhs.uk by August 6. The events are as follows: Wycombe Hospital: August 23, 6.30pm to 8.30pm; Amersham Hospital: August 15, 7pm to 9pm; and Stoke Mandeville Hospital: 20 August 10am to noon.