August 2008

The Archives

26.08.08 | Colin Adamson

Insert your LINk link now - the NHS is on Facebook Posted under: Local Involvement Network, NHS, Public Involvement, Social networking | (1)
The lead article in the HSJ of 18th August looked at how NHS organisations are using this Web 2.0 social networking site to connect with patients, staff, Government ministers and the public. Some are using it to tell people more about the personal side of their lives. We are told that the Health Secretary Alan Johnson "is taking his excellent staff out for a very liquid lunch". Hmm - rather inviting comments from the alcohol units police but we get the point - Government ministers are human and have humans working for them. Andrew Duggan of the Countess of Chester Hospital Foundation Trust wants ...

Tagged: facebook, Local Involvement Network, NHS, Social networking
18.08.08 | Colin Adamson

August Newsletter - Health without frontiers and devolved responsibilities Posted under: Clients, Disability, NHS, Public Involvement, Surveys | (0)
A mixed range of opinions posted in July and early August. I offered the NHS a new rock anthem 'Turn Me Loose and Set Me Free' to celebrate as the NHS moves from targets to devolved responsibilities under the new Constitution. David Nicholson the NHS Chief Executive told patient and user representatives to 'cause more trouble'. Andrew Craig delved into the EU directive on health without frontiers with a reminiscence about handling a complaint for reimbursing a patient who saved her hearing by going off to France for an operation which the NHS kept promising but never delivered. He concluded that ...
17.08.08 | Colin Adamson

Patient Feedback - the Canadian way Posted under: Complaint Handling, Public Involvement, Surveys | (0)
The Lakeridge Health hospital at Oshawa, Ontario sends out a questionnaire and covering letter to those who have been discharged after a stay in hospital. For UK users of similar questionnaires, there will be few surprises both in the ground covered and the survey approach especially when you see that the company running the exercise is NRC Picker Canada. What impressed me the most was the quality of the covering letter which addresses questions that many managers prefer to avoid or gloss over when doing these sorts of surveys. For example, the letter confronts head on one of the main reasons ...

Tagged: Canada, patient surveys, Picker Institute
12.08.08 | Colin Adamson

Canada Post Posted under: Local Involvement Network, Public Involvement | (0)
The current Canadian obsessions are the price of gas for their cars - now going down with every change monitored cent by cent - and detached human parts. The running (floating) story is feet being washed up on various shores thanks to the buoyancy of trainers but this has been pushed aside in the national media by the horrifying reports on the dangers of decapitation by fellow travellers on the bus. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="In Canada, by C.Adamson"][/caption] There was an immediate rush of stories about the civic duty of the fellow passengers on the bus. Should they have intervened? Or ...

Tagged: Canada, newspaper, reader panel