Patients as customers Prof Field?

Just spent a frustrating couple of hours watching a live Q&A session on the NHS reforms and possible changes to the Health and Social Care Bill with Prof Steve Field (who started off by being an hour late arriving at the Guardian office venue).   How depressing to hear him more or less dismiss patient... 
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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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Bigger boards but no room for patients

Good timing for the publication of the Health Select Committee’s latest  report on commissioning. Following the government’s new-found interest in “listening” to what others have to say about health service reform, let’s hope they have set aside some time to read this report... 
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Lansley must do better on accountability

Mr Lansley is a convinced man. But that’s not good if it means his mind is closed.  His understanding of accountability in the new NHS he is proposing is precarious, judging by what he said to Andrew Marr in an interview today.  Despite what is in the Bill,  he said nothing about how commissioning... 
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Lansley confirms legal duty of patient and public involvement

A legal duty of patient and public involvement on GP-led commissioning consortia was confirmed by a bullish Secretary of State Andrew Lansley before the Health Select Committee on the 15th at the same time as Ministers published their response to the white paper Liberating the NHS consultation (MAC’s... 
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Throwing snowballs at moving trucks

Looking for enlightenment from those putting the new commissioning system in place about how accountability to patients and the public will work?  So are we, but none was forthcoming at the recent session of the Health Select Committee quizzing DH mandarins David Nicholson, Barbara Hakin, David Colin-Thome... 
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Practical PPI advice to GP commissioners

The National Association for Primary Care (NAPC) and United Health UK the private sector provider HQ’d in the US have teamed up to produce what so far is the best guide there is to GP commissioning. Reputed to be Mr Lansley’s favourite group of GPs, the NAPC  – mainly the former fundholding... 
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Big players ignore patients and the public in white paper responses

The General Practitioners Committee of the BMA trade union pulled back its support for patient and public engagement last month.  Now both the Kings Fund and the Local Government Group are at it too.  Their formal responses to Liberating the NHS ignore patient and public engagement, despite Mr Lansley’s... 
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Our Patient Participation Group Liberates the NHS

Last week as Lay Member of NHS Wandsworth PEC I got to spend two hours with a group of patients and a couple of the non-clinical surgery team members at the Balham Park Surgery Patients Liaison Group, where I am also a patient, talking about the Liberating the NHS consultation.  It turned out to be... 
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The Wrappings on Local Health Watch

Thanks to Jeremy Taylor for raising in a comment on the LINks and Healthwatch post the thorny issue of Local Health Watch (LHW) and the proposed relationship to local authority funders.  He said: HealthWatch should be funded through local authorities but not accountable to them. How can you be accountable... 
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