The independent 'consumer champion' for health and social care in England published its first annual report. Although 72 per cent of the public said they got good quality care, almost 94 per cent thought that services 'could be improved' and 1 in 3 people expressed concern about basic levels of safety. The report said that this demonstrated the need for a set of rights to be developed and this would form a key part of their work over the coming year.
Source: Healthwatch England Annual Report 2012/13, Healthwatch England
Links: Report | Healthwatch press release | NCT press release
Date: 2013-Oct
A think-tank report proposed that 'patient-led commissioning groups' be allowed to set up alongside existing clinical commissioning groups.
Source: Anton Howes, A National Health Service for Patients, Civitas
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Oct
The National Health Service in England published guidance designed to support health service commissioners to improve individual and public participation.
Source: Transforming Participation in Health and Care: The NHS belongs to us all , NHS England
Links: Guidance | NHS England press release | National Voices press release
Date: 2013-Sep
An article examined health policy divergence across the United Kingdom since devolution. Scotland's approach had been characterized as 'professionalistic' or 'collaborative': but more nuanced studies of particular policy areas were needed. The Scottish National Party's vision of 'a mutual National Health Service' was a complex, even contradictory, project, that warranted further empirical attention.
Source: Ellen Stewart, 'A mutual NHS? The emergence of distinctive public involvement policy in a devolved Scotland', Policy & Politics, Volume 41 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-Jul
A report examined the use of co-design and co-delivery to create a health system driven by the people within it. Care planning, pathway planning and well-being planning enabled patients to identify their own goals and aspirations, and to navigate the services that would help to achieve them. The challenge was to harness collaborative working culture, and to spread and embed it in new settings, including it as standard in primary care and acute services and in service governance.
Source: Martha Hampson (with Peter Baeck and Katharine Langford), By Us, For Us: The power of co-design and co-delivery, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
Links: Report
Date: 2013-Jul
An article examined whether, beneath the rhetoric, any form of real patient choice was endorsed either in law or in National Health Service policy. It explored the case law on 'consent', looked at choice within the National Health Service, and highlighted the dilemmas that a mismatch of language and practice posed for clinicians. Given the variance in interpretation and lack of consistency for the individual patient, a semantic change was needed that avoided the use of 'choice', focusing instead on the options for treatment that were available and accessible, with due acknowledgement of individual patient preferences, without raising unfettered and false expectations.
Source: Ingrid Whiteman, 'The fallacy of choice in the common law and NHS policy', Health Care Analysis, Volume 21 Number 2
Links: Abstract
Date: 2013-May
A report examined why some groups tended to be left out of schemes designed to promote greater user, or public/patient, involvement in public services. It sought to find out how to ensure that all those who used long-term health and social care services could have a more equal chance of having a say and involvement in their lives and society.
Source: Peter Beresford, Beyond the Usual Suspects: Towards inclusive user involvement, Shaping Our Lives
Date: 2013-Apr
A report said that shared decision-making could lead to positive change within health systems and for individual patients.
Source: Ewan King, Jean Taylor, Rebecca Williams, and Tim Vanson, The MAGIC Programme: Evaluation – An independent evaluation of the MAGIC (Making good decisions in collaboration) improvement programme, Health Foundation
Notes: Shared decision-making is a process in which clinicians and patients work together to choose tests, treatments, and support packages, based on clinical evidence and patients informed preferences.
Date: 2013-Apr
A report called for changes to the existing system of healthcare in order to make better use of patient involvement. Consultations should combine clinical expertise with patient-driven goals of well-being, and connect to interventions that changed behaviour and built networks of support. New services should be commissioned that complemented clinical care by supporting long-term behaviour change, improving well-being, and building social networks of support. Care pathways should be jointly designed by patients and professionals to focus on long-term outcomes, recovery, and prevention. A linked report set out the business case for this approach.
Source: Matthew Horne, Halima Khan, and Paul Corrigan, Health for People, by People and with People, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts | Simon Morioka, Stephen Farrington, Phil Hope, and Kieran Brett, The Business Case for People Powered Health, National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts
Links: Report | Summary | Business case
Date: 2013-Apr
A report for the children's watchdog for England said that health bodies needed to do more to involve children and young people in strategic decision-making. Children and young people tended to be asked to comment on decisions that adults had already made, or consulted on their own health needs and service planning, rather than on the wider commissioning, delivery, or evaluation of services. There was no coherent national programme of activity to encourage local bodies to include children and young people in strategic health service commissioning or other vital decision-making about National Health Service provision.
Source: Rachel Blades, Zoe Renton, and Ivana La Valle (with Keith Clements, Jennifer Gibb, and Joanna Lea), We Would Like to Make a Change: Children and young people's participation in strategic health decision-making, Office of the Children's Commissioner
Links: Report | OCC press release
Date: 2013-Mar
A paper examined the role of European patients' organizations in the process of Europeanization of healthcare policies.
Source: Vololona Rabeharisoa and Orla O Donovan, Europe of Patients, Europe for Patients : The Europeanization of healthcare policies by European patients' organizations, Working Paper 030/2013, Centre de Sociologie de l Innovation (Paris)
Links: Paper
Date: 2013-Mar
A report examined the support needed by clinical commissioning group leaders to promote patient and public engagement. Group leaders understood the need to engage with patients: but questions remained about their ability to translate good intentions into effective plans.
Source: Embedding Patient and Public Engagement, Primary Care Commissioning
Links: Report | Summary | PCC press release
Date: 2013-Jan
