Patient experience letdown

The NHS has published its “Patient Experience Framework”.  Do we need one of these?  That’s the question the Kings’s Fund’s Jocelyn Cornwell poses in her blog.  Yes we do, is our answer – but not this one.  Here’s why. Patient experience is becoming like... 
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Engagement in 2012: a balancing act amidst the sound and fury

Here at MAC we always like to say that the best time to engage with people is when they can see the point of engaging, when there is something to fight for or against.   Number One in the Reasons to Engage Top Ten is “Taking It Away”.   We see this in the NHS – the mere mention that... 
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Dare to Blow the Whistle?

Public Concern at Work –the charity that supports whistleblowers- recently used the launch of their biennal review to pose the question “ Whistleblowing – a right or a duty?”. Val Moore, our Partner on the spot, reported some disturbing contributions from people who had reported concerns... 
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Summer Newsletter: Citizen Result

This has been quite a summer for campaigning and the citizen voice. Most recently I got this email from Ricken Patel of Avaaz showing how a combination of persistence, skill in using modern communication networks and helped by the breaking phone hacking scandal had turned a done deal around. It’s... 
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Ombudsman Direct – the preferred citizen solution

Should people be able to take their complaints direct to the Parliamentary Ombudsman without bothering with their MP? That is the question in a new consultation from Ann Abraham’s office. Our view? ‘If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Get out of the way’.... 
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LINks to Health Watch – hey presto?

Does it matter that England’s Local Involvement Networks (LINks) are in a transition period lasting at least twelve months to turn themselves into shiny, new organisations called Local Health Watch? Assuming we can avoid a re-run of discontinuity, demoralisation and loss of organisational memory... 
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Signing up for Complaints

Just before the nation closed down for an extended period to enjoy a heady cocktail mix of secular and religious celebration, eight of the G&G (the Great and the Good) as seen from the perspective of the corner of the universe we work in, signed up to a declaration that meaningful, comparable complaints... 
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The Heart of the Matter

“Dismissive attitude of staff, a disregard for process and procedure and an apparent indifference of NHS staff to deplorable standards of care”" concluded England’s Health Ombudsman Ann Abraham in her Office’s February report into ten cases involving older people. The stories... 
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It’s in the Regs

Dropping on to GP practices’ doormats any time now will be missives from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) making them an offer they can’t refuse, and it’s free. Primary care businesses are being reminded that under the 2008 Health and Social Care Act, providers of primary medical... 
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It’s a “consumer champion” Jim, but not as we know it

MAC partners like to think about the deeper meaning of their real-life consumer experiences.  The one I relate here was  not so much “in my face” like Colin’s, as “on my screen”.   And it gave me a wholly unexpected lesson in what “consumer champion” can really mean.  If you thought... 
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