The Archives
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05.11.08 | Colin AdamsonNovember’s Newsletter: No downturn here - M-A-C blogging team’s creative outputs breaks all records10 posts since 30th September represents an all-time record as M-A-C engages with the issues and causes dear to our collective and individual hearts. Our first ever post back in 2003 was about our central interest - user involvement. A theme echoed in this month's output with Andrew's post Engagement isn't enough. Two posts later, we were taking a look at Ann Abraham's approach to her then quite new job as Health Ombudsman. Complaints and the way they are managed and treated and what they mean for the organisations trying to deal with them are another abiding interest - see the ...
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24.10.08 | Colin AdamsonComplaint Data - common themes confirmed in different surveysIt gets a little dispiriting if you work with complaints and complainants to see the same old messages emerge in survey after survey as the years go by. If I was a complainant, I would be tempted to be very rude to the next person who wanted me to complete a survey about the experience I had with my complaint. The questionnaires or the questioner have a little spiel along the lines of "your experiences will help us greatly in improving the way we handle complaints". Really? There seems to be little sign of that. The National Audit Office has taken ...
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23.10.08 | Andrew CraigNo Authority? Then No Accountability - the Policy Governance® View on the NHS ConstitutionThe consultation on the proposed NHS Constitution closed last week. The UK Policy Governance Association (UKPGA) said it all for us in their submission. M-A-C partners have been big fans of the “policy governance”® approach for public sector boards and Valerie Moore is an accredited PG practitioner. ( See our main website ) The UKPGA submission focused on two key aspects: accountability and local determination of needs. Those have to sorted out first before service users can be clear about what their entitlements to services are. But the NHS Constitution lacks a statement of accountability – ie there is no answer ...
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09.10.08 | Colin AdamsonPaying for ParticipationWe have talked before about the role of cash incentives in getting people engaged with their Health Service. So when we saw this on the BBC News site, we wondered who else was using this or other cash-type rewards? It opens the intriguing concept of cash-based competition between public bodies - many now with statutory duties to consult - to access the views of us fish in the pool of public opinion. Whoever has the biggest feeding bucket with the most fish food gets the most opinions? See the story below: Vouchers offered for NHS opinions http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7658352.stm Residents in east London are being ...
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18.09.08 | Colin AdamsonSeptember Re-entry (September newsletter)The title of the newsletter would sound better in French: 'la rentrée' - a season in France when the State re-awakens after its long summer off and the supermarkets are filled with bargain notebooks and pens - the ones that are all squares and no lines. It is much more than 'back to school' and money off school shoes. On Leadership & Management in Business Shoes are on my mind because I have been reading the latest book by John Timpson of Timpson Shoe Repairs. The book talks about the reasons for the survival of Timpson Shoe Repairs when so many other ...
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26.08.08 | Colin AdamsonInsert your LINk link now - the NHS is on FacebookThe 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 ...
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16.07.08 | Andrew CraigSanté sans (Euro) frontières peut-être?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 ...
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09.07.08 | Colin AdamsonA New Song for the NHS - turn me loose and set me free!"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 ...
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14.03.08 | Andrew CraigAndrew Craig Gets Back to Basics and asks ‘What would William Beveridge say about topping up NHS care?’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. ...
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This blog contains news and views about public involvement policy, practice and development seen from the M-A-C perspective. We invite feedback, so don't hesitate to contribute if you have a different take on events.
recent posts
- November’s Newsletter: No downturn here - M-A-C blogging team’s creative outputs breaks all records
- Schools need lessons in complaint handling
- “Engagement” isn’t enough - only “Involvement” can influence commissioning
- Policy Governance® UK Case History: Val Moore hears how it works in Foundation Trusts
- Complaint Data - common themes confirmed in different surveys
- No Authority? Then No Accountability - the Policy Governance® View on the NHS Constitution
- “Local socialism” trumps “post code lottery” in the NHS debate