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Content Article
Risa Mallory is a retired psychotherapist from Canada and a hub Topic leader. After a serious cardiovascular event in 2018 she became a patient advocate, collaborating with organisations across the globe. In this blog, Risa contends that patient-centred care provides a good foundation but should not be the end goal. She calls on healthcare systems to evolve towards patient-led care, suggesting that this is key to ensuring that patients are treated as partners rather than participants. When you live with heart disease, healthcare stops being abstract very quickly. It becomes personal, constant, and at times overwhelming. Appointments, medications, test results, lifestyle changes—these are not theoretical concepts, they shape how you live each day. Over time, I have learned that how care is delivered matters just as much as what care is delivered. That is where the distinction between patient-centred and patient-led healthcare becomes meaningful. Patient-centred care Patient-centred care is a term I hear often. Clinicians use it to describe care that considers my needs, values, and preferences. On the surface, this sounds exactly right. As a cardiac patient, I want to be treated as a whole person, not just a heart condition. I want my concerns listened to, my fears acknowledged, and my circumstances taken into account. When patient-centred care is done well, it feels respectful. My cardiologist explains options, my nurse checks in on how I’m managing, and decisions are made with me, not just about me. But as someone who lives with this condition every day—not just during clinic visits—I have come to realise that patient-centred care still often keeps control firmly within the healthcare system. The care may be tailored to me, but it is usually still designed, paced, and directed by professionals. I am invited to the table, but I do not always get to set the agenda. That is where patient-led healthcare differs. Patient-led care Patient-led care recognises something fundamental: I am the one living inside this body. I am the one who feels the side effects, manages the fatigue, navigates fear after a hospital admission, and tries to balance medical advice with real life. In a patient-led model, my lived experience is not just considered—it is treated as expertise. As a cardiac patient, being patient-led does not mean I reject clinical knowledge or expect to make decisions alone. I still rely deeply on my healthcare team’s training and experience. What changes is the balance of power. Instead of being asked, “What matters to you?” after decisions are mostly formed, patient-led care asks that question at the beginning—and allows the answer to shape the pathway forward. For example, when discussing treatment options, patient-centred care might present several evidence-based choices and ask which one I prefer. Patient-led care goes further. It asks how those options will affect my daily life, my mental health, my ability to work or care for family, and whether the recommended plan is realistic for me to sustain. It allows me to say, “This may be clinically ideal, but it doesn’t fit my life,” without fear of being labelled non-compliant. From participants to partners The difference becomes especially clear after a cardiac event. In hospital, patient-centred care might ensure good communication, compassionate interactions, and shared decision-making. Once discharged, however, the burden of care shifts heavily onto the patient. Medications, monitoring symptoms, lifestyle changes—suddenly, I am expected to lead my own care without always being given the tools, confidence, or ongoing support to do so. Patient-led healthcare recognises this gap and works to close it. Patient-led care values partnership beyond appointments. It supports education that empowers rather than overwhelms. It acknowledges emotional recovery as part of cardiac recovery. It invites patients into service design, research priorities, and policy decisions—not as a token gesture, but as equal contributors. After all, systems built without patient input often fail to meet patient needs. From my perspective, patient-centred care is an important foundation, but it is not the end goal. It still positions patients as recipients of care, even when that care is compassionate and individualised. Patient-led healthcare moves us from being participants to being partners. It trusts that patients, when supported appropriately, can help guide better, safer, and more humane care. Living with heart disease has taught me that my voice matters—not just in my own treatment, but in shaping the systems meant to support people like me. True progress in healthcare will come when patient-centred care evolves into patient-led care, where lived experience is not an afterthought, but a driving force. More blogs by Risa Compassion is medicine: a patient safety perspective The power of being heard in healthcare When lived experience is embedded at every stage of research Women’s heart health - a patient safety priority Why the patient voice matters when things go wrong -
Content ArticleThe concept of “patient power payments” was recently resurrected by Wes Streeting – but such a policy risks undermining clinical decision-making. Positioned as part of a wider push to strengthen patient voice, including within the new Women’s Health Strategy, the policy is intended to give patients greater influence over how care is assessed and how resources are allocated. However, although giving patients greater influence over provider payment could improve accountability, clinicians warn it may encourage defensive practice and place further strain on NHS services
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Content ArticleOn 25 February 2026, healthcare leaders and stakeholders gathered in London for the Patient Safety Forum, organised by Public Policy Projects (PPP) in partnership with Patient Safety Learning. This blog summarises two sessions at this event which explored how the patient voice can meaningfully contribute to service improvement, and why better care is contingent on a supported, healthy workforce. Read the full article from PPP via the link below.
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Content Article
Why the patient voice matters when things go wrong
Risa Mallory posted an article in Patient engagement
Risa Mallory is a retired psychotherapist from Canada. After a serious cardiovascular event in 2018 she became a patient advocate, collaborating with organisations across the globe. In this blog, Risa describes why patient involvement is critical when things go wrong in healthcare. When something goes wrong in healthcare, it doesn’t just show up as a note in a chart or an item on a safety report. It becomes part of your life. It stays with you. I know this because I’ve lived it — the fear, the confusion, the “what ifs,” and the feeling that the system moved on long before I did. That’s exactly why the patient voice matters so much when care breaks down. We’re the ones who feel the impact the deepest and see the full picture in ways no one else can. Patients notice things others might miss: a symptom that doesn’t fit, a rushed conversation, a moment where something feels “off,” or a handover where important details don’t quite make it through. When things go wrong, those little moments often turn out to be the clues to what really happened. Our lived experience isn’t just a story, it’s information that can help prevent the same mistake from happening to someone else. Being heard after something goes wrong also helps rebuild trust. When you’re harmed or let down, you don’t want canned explanations or polished apologies. You want honesty. You want someone to sit with you, listen, and genuinely care about how the experience affected you. Involving patients in the review process — not just as a formality, but as real partners — shows that the system is willing to learn, not hide. It helps turn a painful event into something meaningful, something that can actually lead to change. And that’s another reason our voices matter: we bring urgency and humanity. Data can point out patterns, but stories make people pay attention. When a patient says, “This almost cost me my life” or “This made me afraid to seek care again”, it cuts through the noise. It reminds everyone why safety work exists in the first place. It puts real faces and real consequences behind policies, checklists, and meetings. Patients also help identify problems that don’t show up in numbers — feeling dismissed, not being believed, cultural barriers, confusing instructions, or the stress of trying to navigate care when you’re scared and unwell. These are things that only come to light when someone shares what it was actually like to be on the receiving end. But maybe the most important reason our voices matter is this: harm is personal. It affects our families, our confidence, and our future. When healthcare organisations truly listen and act, it honours that experience. It shows that what happened to us matters and that they’re committed to making things safer for the next person. Share your insights Have you had an experience as a patient, family member or healthcare professional that highlights the importance of the patient voice? Comment below (sign up for free first), or get in touch with the team to share your story at [email protected]. More blogs by Risa The power of being heard in healthcare When lived experience is embedded at every stage of research Women’s heart health - a patient safety priority -
Content ArticleMental health is an important component of individual well-being and social participation. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) between one in six and one in five people experience a mental health problem in any given year and an estimated one in two people experience a mental health problem in their lifetime. There is a need to measure patients’ experience of mental health care delivery and effects of mental health treatment approaches. Patients are in a unique position to contribute to the quality of health care since they are the only ones who experience the whole episode of care from primary care in communities through hospital care to rehabilitation and follow up in general practice. Health professionals in contrast experience only a snap shot of the entire patient’s journey in the health care system. PREMs ((patient-reported experience measures) and PROMs (patient-reported outcomes measures) are means to assure that the patient voice in health care will be heard and institutionalised. This supplement focuses on how to include the patient voice in mental health, in terms of PREMs and PROMs.
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Content Article
Using patient stories to reflect on care (2016)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Patient stories
There is an increasing emphasis on, and commitment to, using patient narratives in nursing practice and nurse education. Listening to the voices of those receiving our care is just the beginning. The challenge is to use these narratives to improve practice and the patient experience. This seven-part series in the Nursing Times presents narratives from three fields of nursing: adult, mental health and learning disability. Each article includes opportunities to reflect on the stories presented and consider their implications for practice. -
Content ArticleThis article highlights three questions tabled in the House of Commons relating to the Yellow Card Scheme, the system for recording adverse incidents with medicines and medical devices in the UK. Yellow Card Scheme The Yellow Card Scheme is intended to support the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) monitor the safety of all healthcare products in the UK to ensure they are acceptably safe for patients and those who use them.[1] Reports can be made for all medicines, including: side effects (also known as adverse drug reactions or ADRs) medical device adverse incidents defective medicines (those that are not of an acceptable quality) counterfeit or fake medicines or medical devices safety concerns for e-cigarettes or their refill containers (e-liquids). IMMDS Review and incident reporting Published on the 8 July 2020, the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety (IMMDS) Review, led by Baroness Julia Cumberlege, highlighted the need to improve incident reporting in healthcare, specifically in regards to medicines and medical devices.[2] The Review examined the response of the healthcare system in England to the harmful side effects of three medical interventions: hormone pregnancy tests, sodium valproate and pelvic mesh implants. These interventions have resulted in a truly shocking degree of avoidable harm to patients over a period of decades. One area of particular concern that the Review raised related to the Yellow Scheme, highlighting the need for reform of this system, stating that: it needs to be more user-friendly and accessible that the system was hampered by a lack of awareness among both the public and healthcare professionals. More broadly, the Review recommended that the MHRA needed to revise its approach in relation to adverse event reporting and do more to ensure that it engages with patients and their outcomes. The Government accepted this recommendation in its response to the Review.[3] Questions in the House of Commons Below are details of three written questions tabled by Emma Hardy MP concerning the Yellow Card Scheme. All three questions were answered by Will Quince MP, Minister of State (Minister for Health and Secondary Care). Awareness Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the level of awareness of (a) health professionals and (b) the general public of the Adverse Events Yellow Card System; and what steps is he taking to increase awareness of that system among those groups. Answer: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) recognises the importance of both public and healthcare professional understanding of, and access to the MHRA Yellow Card scheme, so that they can promptly report any concerns they have about the safety of healthcare products. The MHRA monitors the number of reports it receives from members of the public and healthcare professionals and strives to keep improving understanding and awareness of the reporting system. The MHRA continually works to encourage reporting of any safety concerns to the Yellow Card scheme and help improve the safe use of medicines and medical devices for everyone. A sharp increase in reporting, mainly from patients, has been seen due to better awareness of the scheme following significant communications activity at the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign.[4] Data collection Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the (a) level and (b) adequacy of data collected by (i) mandatory and (ii) voluntary reporting of adverse clinical events by health professionals before the introduction of the Yellow Card reporting system in England compared to that now collected via the Yellow Card system. Answer: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has reviewed other international mandatory and non-mandatory reporting systems for healthcare professionals and found limited evidence that making reporting mandatory increases the ability to detect safety signals. Very few international mandatory reporting systems have a better reporting rate or a more successful system for detecting safety signals than the United Kingdom. In both medicines and devices legislation there are requirements for manufacturers to report, but there is no legal obligation for healthcare organisations. However, there are professional body standards and guidelines that make reporting a gold standard for healthcare professionals. The MHRA continues to work with partners across the healthcare system to promote and encourage use of the Yellow Card scheme to help detect safety issues. The MHRA has reviewed global approaches to mandatory reporting in other regulatory systems and continues to consider the approach in the UK as we work to improve reporting capability and functionality through systems.[5] Data analysis Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, which body has responsibility for analysing data collected by the Adverse Events Yellow Card system; and what assessment has he made of the potential merits of collating this data on a publicly accessible database. Answer: The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) collects and analyses the data received through the Yellow Card Scheme, and publishes data on medicines and COVID-19 vaccines in a searchable database on the Yellow Card website for transparency purposes. As outlined in the Yellow Card Privacy Policy, the MHRA has responsibilities under both the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 to protect confidential data and personal data pertaining to individuals. The content and format of the data is currently being enhanced in line with patient and healthcare professional feedback and will be expanded to include medical devices in due course. The data provided will continue to be aligned to the MHRA’s legal responsibilities to data subjects.[6] References MHRA, Welcome to the Yellow Card reporting site, Last Accessed 6 June 2023. The IMMDS Review, First Do No Harm: The report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, 8 July 2020. Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), Government response to the report of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, 21 July 2021. House of Commons, Yellow Card Scheme, UIN 186945, tabled on 25 May 2023. House of Commons, Yellow Card Scheme, UIN 186944, tabled on 25 May 2023. House of Commons, Yellow Card Scheme, UIN 186946, tabled on 25 May 2023. Related reading A year on from the Cumberlege Review: Initial reflections on the Government’s response (Patient Safety Learning, 23 July 2021) Response to the Select Committee report on the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review (Patient Safety Learning, 20 January 2023) Regulatory flaws: Women were catastrophically failed in the mesh, Primodos and Sodium Valproate tragedies (Kath Sansom, 15 April 2021)
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EventuntilThe Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will be holding a joint virtual Innovative Licencing and Access Pathway (ILAP) information and update session. This event will provide an opportunity for patient groups and patient experts to receive an update on the work of the ILAP, how the MHRA involve patient and public representatives, and future developments about how the MHRA are accelerating the time to market and facilitating patient access to innovative medicines. This event is open to all patient and public representatives who are involved in the work of any of the ILAP partners. Along with presentations from some of the ILAP team, a patient representative will share their experiences as a member of the pilot ILAP Patient and Public Reference Group. There will also be a panel discussion session with plenty of opportunity for questions from participants. Register
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EventuntilThe King's Fund and Healthwatch England join forces on 28–31 March 2022 to explore how meaningful engagement and listening to people’s experiences can result in better-quality care. We will all need to use health and social care services at some point in our lives. Many complex factors can influence the quality of care we receive. However, policy-makers and researchers are increasingly highlighting the importance of putting people's voices at the centre of organising and planning health care services. Although seen as important, listening to people properly, harnessing the lessons from feedback and implementing them to make changes is not always straightforward. How can the NHS and social care services ensure that they really listen to and learn from people and communities? Event topics How to listen well – we'll show you examples of good-quality engagement and the methods you can use to implement these How you can improve commissioning and service delivery by listening to people How public engagement is a critical asset in the battle against health inequalities How people’s voices are already making a difference to strategy and policy-making The opportunities to ensure people’s voices are used meaningfully within integrated care systems. Buy tickets
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EventuntilThis conference will focus on measuring, understanding and acting on patient experience insight, and demonstrating responsiveness to that insight to ensure Patient Feedback is translated into quality improvement and assurance. Through national updates and case study presentations, the conference will support you to measure, monitor and improve patient experience in your service, and ensure that insight leads to quality improvement. Sessions will include learning from patients, improving patient experience during and beyond Covid-19, a national update, practical sessions focusing on delivering a patient experience based culture, measuring patient experience, using the NHS Improvement National Patient Experience Improvement Framework, demonstrating insight and responsiveness in real time, monitoring and improving staff experience, the role of human factors in improving quality, using patient experience to drive improvement, changing the way we think about patient experience, and learning from excellence in patient experience practice. Chair and speakers include: Cristina Serrao, Lived Experience Ambassador NHS England and Improvement Clare Enston, Head of Insight & Feedback NHS England and Improvement David McNally, Head of Experience of Care NHS England and Improvement. Book a place Patient experience conference brochure 25 Nov 2021.pdf
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Event
Leveraging PFACS for patient safety
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
There are so many organisations that are doing great work related to Patient and Family Advisory Councils (PFACs) but an astounding number are not and this work is crucial to performance improvement. Meaningful and sustainable incorporation of the patient and family perspective is no longer optional for organisations that strive for high reliability. In this Patient Safety Movement webinar, the panelists will discuss the background of person-centred care, the history of its incorporation in the clinical setting, and the introduction of PFACs, current organisational barriers to implementing and sustaining PFACs, recommendations to nurture involvement in and meaningful use of PFACs, and strategies for participant onboarding into PFACs on the journey towards high reliability. Register -
Community Post"There is an aspect of information exchange that has attracted less attention and fewer resources: that patients are experts in their experience and know much more than clinicians about their own health and the needs and goals important to them." From: https://catalyst.nejm.org/information-asymmetry-untapped-patient/ Such an important point to see patients as knowledge hubs on their own care experiences.
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News ArticleThe Health Research Authority has launched a new strategy to ensure information about all health and social care research – including COVID-19 research - is made publicly available to benefit patients, researchers and policy makers. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of sharing details of research taking place - to understand the virus and find the tests, treatments and vaccines - so that results can inform best quality care and preventive measures. This also means researchers do not duplicate efforts and can build on each other’s work while the public can see what research is going on. Now the new Make it Public strategy aims to build on this good practice and make it easy for researchers to be transparent about their work. The strategy, delivered by the HRA in partnership with NHS Research Scotland (NRS), Health and Care Research Wales and Health and Social Care Northern Ireland, is about making transparency ‘the norm’ in research and making information more visible to the public. New measures set out in the strategy – will improve transparency and openness in health and social care studies, by: expecting researchers to plan how they will let research participants know about the findings of the study from the beginning introducing additional monitoring to check that researchers are reporting results and to collect information about study findings making information on individual research projects – and their transparency performance - available to the public introducing a system to consider past transparency performance when reviewing new studies for approval and in the future introducing sanctions.
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News Article
Take part in a conception & pregnancy study COVID-19
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
CAP-COVID are conducting essential research on how the COVID-19 pandemic affects pregnant women and their babies. If you are a pregnant woman at any stage of pregnancy, you can take part in the study. This includes whether you have just had a positive pregnancy test (even if you are unsure what to do about your pregnancy), whether you are in the middle of pregnancy, or you are about to have your baby. Take part -
News Article
Short surveys will support better connected social care and health services
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The Professional Record Standards Body would like you to take part in two surveys about the information that should be shared between health and social care. The project aims to improve connections between different services, to allow people better access to the personalised care and wellbeing support they need. They’ve also produced an easy read version for anyone who has difficulty reading, which can be found here. -
Content ArticleThis framework provides guidance on how the NHS can involve people in their own safety as well as improving patient safety in partnership with staff. It is relevant to all NHS trusts and commissioners and should also be useful to other NHS settings, including primary care and community services, that are considering how they can involve patients in safety. About the framework This sets out how NHS organisations should involve patients in patient safety and is divided into two parts: Part A: Involving patients in their own safety Part B: Patient safety partner (PSP) involvement in organisational safety Part A: Involving patients in their own safety The first part of this framework describes how organisations should support patients, their families and carers to be directly involved in their own or their loved one’s safety. It provides guidance on the following approaches to this: Encouraging patients to ask questions by: asking them directly if they have any queries about their care providing leaflets, videos and apps to encourage patients to ask questions or raise issues with professionals Individual information-sharing sessions for patients, including proactively involving them in: monitoring their symptoms understanding their medications following up on test results and appointments making choices about their care, where appropriate Information campaigns such as those encouraging people to be vigilant about staff, visitors and patients cleaning their hands. Reporting incidents by: raising concerns through complaints systems flagging them to staff them to the online national reporting system (currently the National Reporting and Learning System, NRLS; to be replaced by the Learn from patient safety events (LFPSE) Individual involvement in incident investigation. Part B: Patient safety partner involvement in organisational safety The second part of this framework describes how organisations should support PSPs to be involved in wider governance and leadership of safety activities. PSP involvement in organisational safety relates to the role that patients and other lay people can play in supporting and contributing to a healthcare organisation’s governance and management processes for patient safety. Roles for PSPs can therefore include: membership of safety and quality committees whose responsibilities include the review and analysis of safety data involvement in patient safety improvement projects working with organisation boards to consider how to improve safety involvement in staff patient safety training participation in investigation oversight groups. Links to the Framework: Framework for involving patients in patient safety Framework for involving patients in patient safety summary Framework for involving patients in patient safety: Easy read version Framework for involving patients in patient safety: Appendices Driver diagram: Related reading Patient Safety Learning: Will new NHS proposals ensure patients are better engaged in the safety of their care? (22 October 2020)
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News Article
"Patients are not empowered to prevent their own harm", says Sir Liam Donaldson
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Today, Sir Liam Donaldson is chairing a patient safety meeting at the World Health Organization (WHO) 'A Global Consultation – A decade of Patient Safety 2020–2030' to formulate a Global Patient Safety Action Plan. His introductory address this morning focused on the task ahead – to maintain the World Health Assembly resolution momentum and patient safety as a global movement. "Patients are not empowered to prevent their own harm", Donaldson said, as he highlighted patient stories of unsafe care and the alarming parallels of patient and family experiences across the world. So where is the power? Donaldson went on to to highlight how the six current power blocks are not doing enough to improve safety and that we need to engage and motivate these power blocks to achieve change: Designing of health systems – we have not seen much evidence of systems being designed for safety. Health leaders are not using their power to lead for reduced harm. Educational institutions – these have to happen faster to train staff in. Research community – has patient safety research led to sustainable reduction in risk? Data and information – how has this improved patient safety? Industry – pharma doing very little on medication packaging and labelling; medical devices industry also could do more. -
News Article
Health NHS patient feedback is not being used to improve services, report warns
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
The NHS is spending millions of pounds encouraging patients to give feedback but the information gained is not being used effectively to improve services, experts have warned. Widespread collection of patient comments is often “disjointed and standalone” from efforts to improve the quality of care, according to a study by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). Nine separate studies of how hospitals collect and use feedback were analysed. They showed that while thousands of patients give hospitals their comments, their reports are often reduced to simple numbers – and in many cases, the NHS lacks the ability to analyse and act on the results. The research found the NHS had a “managerial focus on bad experiences” meaning positive comments on what went well were “overlooked”. The NIHR report said: “A lot of resource and energy goes into collecting feedback data but less into analysing it in ways that can lead to change, or into sharing the feedback with staff who see patients on a day-to-day basis. NHS England's chief nurse, Ruth May, said: "Listening to patient experience is key to understanding our NHS and there is more that that we can hear to improve it. This research gives insight into how data can be analysed and used by frontline staff to make changes that patients tell us are needed." Read full story Source: 13 January 2020 -
Content ArticleIn the UK and Ireland men are three to four times more likely to die by suicide than women. Research also tells us that men who are less well-off and living in the most deprived areas are up to 10 times more likely to die by suicide than more well-off men from affluent areas .Middle-aged men in the UK and Ireland also experience higher suicide rates than other groups, a fact that has persisted for decades. The Samaritans carried out in-depth ethnographic interviews with 16 less well-off middle aged men across the UK and Ireland to find out the challenges they faced and the events which lead them to crisis point. The study explored what these men said worked for them when they came into contact with with support services. This is the first of two connected reports. The second report, due to be released later in 2020, will set out recommendations of how services can effectively engage and support men earlier in their lives, before they reach crisis Findings The men spoken to had been struggling for years with poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and feelings. Despite experiencing many well-known risk factors for this group, many opportunities to help them at critical points before they reached crisis were missed. Importantly, the men spoken to didn't see community-based support services, focused on fostering connection and community, as relevant to them before they reached crisis. "There exists a vacuum of responsibility in which opportunities to engage and support these men, before they hit crisis point, were neglected." What is wanted from support services Among other things, the following were all key: The opportunity to make a contribution. A feeling of inclusivity. The chance to work towards common goals. Peer support and feeling like they had shared experience with other people.
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Content ArticleIn this blog, Steve Turner provides a guide for patients to help them understand what they should come away with at the end of a consultation. He argues that if these areas have not been covered, the consultation is incomplete and a patient should not accept this.
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Content ArticleThis is the first report from the patient experience programme, Being A Patient, which explores what it means to be a patient and how understanding of the patient experience is used by the health service. The report suggests that it’s time for a fresh look at how we evaluate and capture patient experience. While there is no shortage of measures of ‘patient experience’, they tend to measure the performance of the system. Few truly start from the patient’s perspective and illuminate what being a patient is like. Nor are they reliable drivers of improvement in the health and care system. Being A Patient investigated possible new approaches to capturing patient experience, which go beyond the traditional model of evaluating the experience of receiving care, and instead consider the experience of living with a health or care need. So far we have suggestions for possible new factors to consider, including the nature of a person’s illness and its impact on their life. This report completes the first stage of the patient experience programme.
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Content ArticleHealthcare Improvement Scotland is currently working with the Scottish Government to develop COVID-19 specific Anticipatory Care Planning (ACP) templates and guidance. ACP is a person-centred approach to help people to plan for their future. The essence of ACP is to encourage individuals to think ahead to help ensure that in the event of a change in their health or care needs, including loss of capacity, the right thing is done at the right time by the right person with the right outcome. ACP can benefit many individuals, from those with early onset of long-term conditions to people with chronic and complex illnesses, to plan ahead for care needs. ACP can be beneficial to individuals towards the end of their life, however the process can be more effective if started earlier in their journey. The link below takes you to an online resource that is designed to be used in conjunction with practitioner judgement, and is not for sole use by individuals and their families without guidance.
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Content ArticleThis animation has been made to help patients stay safe while they are in hospital. It has been developed by Haelo, an innovation and improvement centre in Salford, in partnership with Guy’s and St Thomas’, and is based on the airline-style safety card developed by Guy’s and St Thomas’. Designed as part of their award-winning Welcome Pack, the safety card supports our commitment to patient safety and enables patients to play an active role in their care.
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Content ArticleNorthampton General Hospital NHS Trust has produced this leaflet to help keep patients safe in hospital. This leaflet includes patient information on: why is patient safety important how you can help your medicine recognising acute illness what happens if your Early Warning Score increases? what should relatives or friends do if they are worried that your health is worsening or not improving? blood clots safe surgery infections falls prevention advice preventing pressure ulcers.
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Content ArticleThis conceptual article published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety describes the barriers and facilitators of adopting, implementing, and sustaining the Patient and Family Advisory Councils on Quality and Safety (PFACQS) model across a large, geographically diffuse health system. Successful strategies that emerged include active board engagement, co-creation and mentorship by experienced patient advocates to support enhanced engagement by local PFACQS community members, and clear alignment with and line of sight on organisational quality and safety goals. It concludes that implementing a robust network of PFACQS focused on improving quality and patient safety requires leadership commitment to transparency, as well as mutual respect and trust. Establishing clear guidelines, structures, and processes supports early adoption. Openness to continuous improvement and adaptations are important to programme success and contribute to programme sustainability.
