'Care Opinion' opens dialogue between patients and healthcare in Alberta, creating positive change. Courtesy/Imagine Citizens Network

By Jayk Sterkenburg

SMILE SUNDAYS

Online platform new to Alberta provides healthcare patients industry-changing voice

Apr 20, 2025 | 9:59 AM

Kimberley Sidhu received lifesaving care at Rockyview General Hospital in Calgary, and has since experienced healing through the power of storytelling thanks to an online platform new to Alberta.

Care Opinion is an independent platform that enables patients and caregivers to share their lived healthcare experiences.

Sidhu said she wasn’t able to thank the ICU staff enough for saving her life when she contracted sepsis, and invasive Group A streptococcus pyogenes, giving birth to her second daughter.

“I dreamed of having a big family. I loved being pregnant, and that was gone just in a matter of a moment,” she told CHAT News Tuesday.

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“The surgery went good. It was just, it was really bad. I needed a lot of blood. And my surgeon said it was the worst he’s ever seen,” she added.

“I got home about when my daughter turned one month old. I left when she was four days old, they came home and she was a month old. And that was a lot.”

Sidhu said she wasn’t able to thank the ICU staff enough for saving her life. Courtesy/Imagine Citizens Network

Care Opinion recently launched in Canada, but originated in the UK over 20 years ago.

Whether positive or challenging, stories are shared through the platform with healthcare professionals, allowing patients and caregivers to receive direct feedback from the healthcare team involved in their care.

Sidhu said being able to voice opinions anonymously can have an impact on accountability in healthcare.

The platform is meant to create transparency and increase collaboration within Alberta’s healthcare system.

It’s a program of Imagine Citizens Network, that opens up an opportunity to create change, connect meaning to personal experience and cultivate community in a safe and moderated environment.

Executive director of ICN Don McLeod said the platform creates opportunities for people to feel heard and valued.

He said when healthcare providers listen to and respond to stories, the learning process becomes a pathway for meaningful change.

He said patients and providers become partners in an evolving learning health system, through Albertans telling their story on a safe and confidential platform.

“Healthcare can be a very vulnerable journey, of course, and many people have challenging experiences within healthcare,” he told CHAT News.

“The relationship with their healthcare providers is important, and they don’t want to jeopardize that. They want to provide feedback, and they want the system to help to learn from their experience,” he added.

“They definitely also want to protect their own personal information. Every story that gets published is a public story on our website. So we want to protect their identity when we go public, so that their story is kept confidential from that perspective.”

McLeod said the learning process of the platform becomes a pathway for meaningful change. . Courtesy/Imagine Citizens Network

McLeod said both positive and challenging stories can be learned from.

He said the positive stories are always affirming to healthcare providers, who don’t often hear about good stories.

“What Care Opinion UK has found over 20 years of supporting this platform in the UK is that 70 per cent of their stories are actually positive, which our subscribers- our healthcare providers and organizations that partner with us- are really surprised to hear,” he said.

“That can make a real difference. The experience of healthcare providers these days is quite challenging, and they’re always living with less resources than they probably need. They have challenging timelines.”

McLeod said healthcare workers being able to hear positive stories — about the impact and difference they make — can “change cultures”.

Sidhu said the platform is life changing for people like her.

“You want to be able to share your opinion freely, especially now in healthcare- to have a voice,” she said.

“To be able to share that and know that it was going to be like, ‘Look how much this was appreciated’. I think that’s huge,” she added.

“Thank you so much for saving my daughter’s mom.”

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