National Voices: What We Need Now

Summary

This report summarises how National Voices engaged with people who have ongoing health and care needs during the first phase of the pandemic and how this engagement led to a set of statements that describe what people who use health and care services now expect these services to look and feel like.

These statements express people’s reasonable expectations of healthcare. Most would see the demand to be listened to and have one’s decisions respected as basic tenets of normal healthcare. The power of these statements lies in the fact that they are truly reflective of what people with significant health and care needs said they needed and wanted. National Voices believe that their simplicity, their self-evident realism and the pragmatism they therefore inspire demand an equally practical and grounded response from system leaders, and everyone tasked with designing and delivering health and care.