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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No QIPP about me without me

Quipping aside, this is no joke.  Think tanks can be short sighted.  They rightly identify QIPP: Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention -  as essential to the success of the NHS reforms. But these same smart people signally fail to identify the “X factor” needed to mobilise and... 
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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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The Patient Experience: from Data to Doing

Our Val said it in her October blog Where Participation gets Personal where she mourned the continuing reluctance of senior managers in a hospital and partners in GP practices to act on data from patients and their carers. She was thinking in particular of the information available informally from patients... 
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Complaints Up – Good or Bad News?

Complaints up! Shock horror! I can imagine what tomorrow’s press will make of the NHS Information Centre report on English written complaints showing a 13.4% year on year rise, breaking through the 100,000 barrier. The accompanying comments from Tim Straughan the chief executive try to put this... 
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On my face; in my face

Operations on your face are very much in your face. It is an oddly intimate atmosphere where strangers are very close  to you, murmuring in your ear advising you to close your eyes. The knife makes no noise – nothing like the whine of the dentist with their noisy drills and sucking tubes.... 
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Turning government on its head – we hope so

To coincide with the publication of Liberating the NHS, the Department of Health has published its departmental priorities in the form of a Structural Reform Plan.  SRPs are required by the Coalition Government from all government departments. Head stands SRPs are designed, in the word’s of the... 
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The NHS Semiosphere – New Model Participation

A number of transformative journeys for both patient and the NHS communities are set out in a recent Health Foundation report published as an HSJ supplement Mutuality ‘The patient will see you now”. It is tempting to dismiss this report as yet another proof that writing about patient... 
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Phlebotomy Phiasco – a customer-oriented process?

It was real vintage Blitz memories stuff complete with stoic South Londoners joking about arriving the night before and camping out to be sure of being seen quickly. Cheery instructions for the new arrivals to how to use the system – take a ticket. It was like being inside a display at the Imperial... 
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