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NHS

26.08.08 | Colin Adamson

Insert your LINk link now - the NHS is on Facebook 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 to use Facebook to engage with young people and is quoted as saying that "an important objective for us at the moment is engaging with younger people; our staff, patients and (foundation trust) members of the future". He acknowledges the fact that this group is traditionally difficult to engage with. This is the ...
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18.08.08 | Colin Adamson

August Newsletter - Health without frontiers and devolved responsibilities 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 health travel would broaden the minds of British patients and vice versa. And acute trusts here looking to keep up their balance sheets would do well to consider where the waiting lists were longest in member states as health travel will work both ways. Fleishman-Hillards’ blog “Public Affairs 2.0” ...
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16.07.08 | Andrew Craig

Santé sans (Euro) frontières peut-être? NHS | (3)
M-A-C has always backed more service user choice - and we are delighted to see it enshrined in Lord Darzi's "Next Stage Review" commitment to providing patients with greater access to information and freedom to control their own care. It is therefore perplexing - but not unexpected given previous form - to see the Department of Health speaking for the English NHS decrying what it sees as the likely effects of the new European Directive "On the Application of Patients' Rights in Cross Border Healthcare" launched earlier this month. Aren't they in favour of patients having more choice? Only on their terms perhaps. The EU Directive isn't very radical and rather watered down compared with earlier drafts, but it is welcome nonetheless to have existing rights (though most people never knew they had them) focused in one document. The sticking point about an NHS patient travelling to another EU member state ...
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09.07.08 | Colin Adamson

A New Song for the NHS - turn me loose and set me free! NHS, Public Involvement, Uncategorized | (1)
"Cause More Trouble" That was one piece of advice from David Nicolson, Chief Executive of the NHS speaking at a Department of Health conference 8th July to those representing the patient interest. The venue was the cathedral-like space of the Lawrence Hall in the Royal Horticultural Halls before an audience of specialists and enthusiasts working in the area of people participation, involvement, engagement - the vocabulary changed as fast and as frequently as the sky over Wimbledon. Many of them had gathered before in halls to be assured that the future of patient participation was now safe and on a good road only to be disappointed by the reality down the line. Does the NHS this time have a new story and a new song that will not just promise a new dawn but deliver it? NHS - the New Story and why not? - a Song as well The speakers ...
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22.04.08 | Colin Adamson

Section 242 and the Disability Equality Duty - Making a Happy Marriage Disability, NHS, Public Involvement | (0)
We do not get many comments on the blog so we were delighted when Michelle Valentine, the author of the piece that follows, was sufficiently interested by an entry that Andrew Craig wrote in March on complying with Section 242 to note in our comment box "This new duty could be quite a powerful lever for disabled people, and it will be interesting to see how this duty will be implemented alongside the duties imposed by the DDA 2005 to involve disabled people. I would welcome a discussion about this." This was rather unwise of Michelle because of course we immediately invited her to kick off such a discussion. Her article follows. Michelle has her own consultancy Disability Forward Ltd and we know her from her work with the BSI Consumer and Public Interest Network. You can reach her at michelle@disabilityfwd.co.uk Section 242 is shorthand for the general legal duty on the ...
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14.03.08 | Andrew Craig

Andrew Craig Gets Back to Basics and asks ‘What would William Beveridge say about topping up NHS care?’ NHS, Public Involvement | (2)
In a personal piece reflecting on his own healthcare needs, Andrew challenges current thinking on 'topping up' and consults the welfare state's urtext. I have been back to the source for all things enlightened about the British welfare state - Sir William Beveridge's magisterial and visionary 1942 report - produced in the darkest days of the second world war - entitled Social Insurance and Allied Services. I wanted to check on what he had said about people topping up their NHS care by paying a little bit extra on top of the what you get from the state as their entitlement. Did he predict that this would introduce the danger of a 'two tier' health service? Would Sir William agree with the modern day guardians of the NHS that "topping up" and "two-tierism" were heinous crimes to be discouraged at all costs? Far from it. The proponent of our universal and ...
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09.03.08 | Andrew Craig

Complying with the Section 242 Duty to Consult and Involve Users of Health Services Disability, NHS, Public Involvement | (2)
From his perspective as a PEC member in London's PCT-land, Andrew Craig offers a personal view about how to start complying with the new legal duty in Section 242 and make it work to the advantage of good governance in the NHS. What is "Section 242"? The NHS loves shorthand and "Section 242" will soon be part of it: shorthand in fact for the general legal duty on the NHS to consult and involve service users in everything to do with planning, provision and delivery of services. The duty specifically applies where there are changes proposed in the manner in which services are delivered or in the range of services made available. A briefing about Section 242 is available from the Department of Health (December 2007: Gateway Ref 9138) Statutory guidance - i.e. compulsory - about the 242 duty and the related sections of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health ...
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29.01.08 | Colin Adamson

LINKSWORKS - Supporting User and Public Voice Networks for the NHS And Social Care Clients, Local Involvement Network, NHS, Public Involvement | (0)
Press Release: Tuesday, 29 January 2008 "We want to help the new user and public voices involvement networks known as LINks get off to the best possible start," Andrew Craig of the Moore Adamson Craig Partnership said today. The Partnership is launching a new suite of LINks-related products called LINKSWORKS® for the new world of local authority-based Local Involvement Networks designed to bring the voices of service users and the public into the decision making of commissioners and providers of health and social care. "The history of patient and public involvement in the health service has been a chequered one recently with Community Health Councils being closed and their ill-fated successor the Commission for Public and Patient Involvement in Health lasting less than five years," Andrew points out. "It is therefore vital to make sure the new arrangements get off to the best possible start by recruiting good people and reassuring local ...
Continue reading: LINKSWORKS - Supporting User and Public Voice Networks for the NHS And Social Care

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