New Report Shows That Health Service Is Still Not Meeting Patient Priorities, UK
September 22, 2007 – 11:09 am | posted in Public HealthA new Health Foundation report by leading healthcare academics has shown that the NHS needs to listen more to what patients want. Responding to these important findings, The Health Foundation called on Government to make real its commitments to create a patient-led NHS. The Foundation also announced a £4.95m initiative working with patients and staff across the UK to show how this could be done.
The report, by Professor Sheila Leatherman of The University of North Carolina and Kim Sutherland of The University of Cambridge, is the first time the scattered evidence on patient views has been brought together in one place. Entitled ‘Patient and Public Experience of the NHS’, the report uses over 40 different charts to give a comprehensive assessment of the Government’s efforts to create a patient-led NHS.
It paints a mixed picture with many positive improvements. The need to listen to and communicate better with patients is an area that Government has repeatedly committed to act on, and is a fundamental part of its reform strategy through policies like patient choice and the Expert Patient Programme. However, the report shows that good intentions are not always delivered in practice.
This message is reinforced by a report issued today by the Picker Institute, which highlights the need for greater patient engagement in managing their own healthcare.
Kim Sutherland, co-author of the report said:
“In recent years, a multitude of policy documents have asserted that the NHS should become more patient-centred. We wanted to explore the extent to which this has been achieved.
“The Government’s attempts to make the NHS more responsive to patient and the public have been a fundamental and much needed change. What is clear from our study is that a truly patient-centred NHS would place a higher priority on communicating and giving information, shared decision-making, and treating patients as individuals. We hope that our findings can have a positive impact in bringing about this change.”
Stephen Thornton, Chief Executive of the Health Foundation, commenting on the Foundation report’s findings said:
“This valuable report shows that when Government concentrates on what patient and the public want great improvements can be made - as can be seen through the dramatic reduction in waiting times. It’s now time for the Government to make good on its commitments to increase patient engagement in the NHS.
“We are not only calling for change, we are investing money in stimulating that change. Focussing on listening and communicating better with patients, we are announcing the launch of a new £4.95 million initiative, Co-creating Health.
“Today’s report shows that fewer than a third of people with chronic long term conditions are being helped to manage their health on a day-to-day basis. Co-creating Health will transform care for these people. Working with pioneering healthcare organisations, their medical staff and patients across the UK, we aim to change the doctor/patient relationship and help patients become experts in their own health.”
Interview Opportunities
- Stephen Thornton, Chief Executive of The Health Foundation, on the findings and implications of the chart book and the work of The Foundation to increase quality of healthcare in the UK by meeting patient priorities
- Kim Sutherland, co-author of the chart book, on the evidence for the charts
Key Findings
The chart book examines patient priorities and how the Health Service is currently meeting them. The report shows that patients want:
- Information and involvement in decision-making about their care
- To be treated as an individuals
- Choice where it makes a difference
- Predictable and convenient access to healthcare
- Equitable treatment and health outcomes
- To be safe and protected from harm in healthcare settings.
The Authors
Kim Sutherland is a Senior Research Associate at the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. Her work concentrates on interactions between research evidence, policy and clinical practice within the NHS. In 1997 she was commissioned by The Nuffield Trust, with Sheila Leatherman, to conduct an assessment of the government’s ten-year quality agenda for the NHS and, in 2002-3, to undertake a mid-term review of progress in implementing that agenda. The same team compiled a chartbook, published in July 2005, that depicted quality in healthcare across the UK.
Sheila Leatherman is a Research Professor in the School of Public Health at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a Visiting Fellow of the London School of Economics and Political Science and Distinguished Associate of Darwin College at the University of Cambridge.
Professor Leatherman is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine at the US National Academy of Sciences (2002) where she serves on the Global Health Board, an elected member of the National Academy of Social Insurance (1997) and an Honorary Fellow of The Royal College of Physicians in the UK(2005).
Professor Leatherman conducts research and policy analysis internationally. In 1997, she was appointed by President Clinton in 1997 to the President’s Advisory Commission on Consumer Protection and Quality in the Health Care Industry to develop a national strategy for quality measurement and reporting in the USA. She is co-author of a series of chart books on quality of healthcare in the USA, commissioned by The Commonwealth Fund.
In the UK, she was commissioned by The Nuffield Trust in 1997 to assess the proposed quality reforms for the NHS. She was also commissioned to evaluate the mid-term impact of the ten year quality agenda in the NHS, resulting in publication of the report The Quest for Quality in the NHS, in December 2003 and The Quest for Quality in the NHS; A Chartbook on Quality of Care in the UK (2005).
Co-creating Health
The initiative will support eight sites from across the UK to create new models of healthcare that embed self-management within mainstream health services. Two teams will focus on each of the following long-term conditions: musculoskeletal pain, Chronic and Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), diabetes and depression.
It uniquely combines an advanced development programme for clinicians to increase their skills in supporting their patients to self-manage and a self management course for people with long term conditions to help them to become effective self-managers. The initiative will also re-design services so that they make it easier for people with long term conditions to take a more active role in managing their health. At the centre of the initiative is a radical shift in the relationship between patients and clinicians, towards the creation of a more equal partnership.
Co-creating Health will be demonstrated at the following sites:
COPD
- Aryshire & Arran NHS Board, North Ayrshire Community Health Partnership, South Ayrshire Community Health Partnership, East Ayrshire Community Health Partnership
- Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Cambridgeshire Primary Care Trust (PCT)
Diabetes
- Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Southwark Health and Social Care
- Whittington NHS Hospital Trust, Islington PCT, Haringey PCT
Depression
- South West London & St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust, Wandsworth Teaching PCT
- Devon Partnership Trust, Torbay Care Trust
Musculoskeletal pain
- Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, Calderdale PCT, Kirklees PCT
- North Bristol NHS Trust, Bristol Primary Care Trust
The Health Foundation
The Health Foundation is a charitable foundation working to improve the quality of healthcare across the UK and beyond. In partnership with others, we are helping to shape a future healthcare system that offers safe, effective and responsive care for all.
We are independent of government, political parties, the commercial sector or other interest groups.
Our endowment enables us to spend more than £20 million annually. We seek out the best people in healthcare and support them to learn and share with others. Through projects, research and evaluation studies we test and measure new ways of improving health care.
We aim to use the evidence generated from our work to influence healthcare policy and achieve sustainable and widespread improvements in the quality of patient care for the future.
You must be logged in to post a comment.