Patient focus updates - 18 April 2013

New policy, guidance and initiatives from across the UK that focus on the patient perspective and experience. For more information about this theme see Quality and Safety eBulletin: Patient focus.

Some of the resources linked to are in PDF format - see how to access PDF files.

Care Quality Commission (CQC): Experiences of inpatient services in NHS hospitals. These results originate from a survey that looked at the experiences of over 64,500 patients who were admitted to NHS hospitals in 2012. Between September 2012 and January 2013, 850 inpatients at participating NHS trusts were sent a survey asking about the care they received. The survey results have been published by the trust.

Centre for Patient Leadership (CPL): Bring it on: 40 ways to support patient leadership. This guide explains what patient leadership means, as well as the role and purpose of patient leaders. It aims to help NHS organisations foster patient leadership by providing descriptions of key concepts, examples, case studies, tools (such as self-assessment frameworks and checklists), top tips and useful background material.

DH: Patient experience overall measure: supporting tools. The Department of Health (DH) has produced a toolkit to help NHS managers and the general public understand what feeds in to the overall score, and to see how scores vary across individual NHS organisations.

DH: Patient experience overall measure: 2012 inpatient survey update. Patient experience of NHS inpatient services increased between 2011 and 2012. The statistics use responses that NHS patients gave in the wide-ranging national patient survey programme to calculate a set of scores to measure patient views on the care they receive.

DH: Hospices receive £60 million funding boost. Hospices across England providing end of life care for children and adults have been awarded a share of £60million government funding to improve care environments and settings. A total of 176 hospices will benefit from the fund, which will be used to invest in creating new spaces for patients, their families and carers, whilst also supporting the care hospices provide to people in their own homes.

DH: NHS Continuing Healthcare and NHS Funded Nursing Care: Public Information Leaflet. The leaflet provides information for people who may be in need of NHS continuing healthcare and NHS funded nursing care as a result of disability, accident or illness. It explains the process used to determine whether somebody is eligible for care funded entirely by the NHS.

Guardian: Organ donation: drive to prevent families from overriding donor's wishes. The UK Organ Donation Taskforce has urged the Government to introduce legislation to ensure that registered organ donors’ wishes to donate their organs after death cannot be overruled by relatives. In 2011-12 125 registered organ donors’ decision was reversed by family members. Although there is nothing in the law to say that families can override a donors’ decision, medics are often unwilling to go against their wishes. The Taskforce was appointed in 2008 to increase the number of donors, and has overseen a 50 per cent increase.
NICE: NICE guideline "a trigger" for increase in organ donations.
DHSSPS: NHS achieves ground breaking 50% increase in deceased organ donors - Northern Ireland achieved an increase of 81.8%.
Health in Wales: Organ donor numbers show there is more work to be done in Wales.

Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP): HQIP and Changing our Lives to run a new national user-led pilot. HQIP are working with Changing our Lives to run a national pilot project, designed to support organisations in developing user-led service reviews. The pilot will involve the implementation of a Quality of Health toolkit, based on the Quality of Health principles.
Quality of Health principles (PDF 3.3MB).
Quality of Health toolkit and national pilot project (PDF 293KB).

Institute of Applied Social Sciences, University of Birmingham (IASS): Care transitions project: resource pack. This resource pack has been put together following a recently completed project exploring older service user and carer experiences of transitions across service boundaries, in particular of moves into and out of hospital, and into and between dementia services. It includes resources on co-researcher recruitment and training as well as information on conducting interviews.
See: Care transitions resource pack.

INVOLVE: Putting it into practice database. This resource has been developed for people who are planning or developing public involvement in research or wishing to broaden their practice. It provides useful information on ‘how to do it’. It includes published guidance on good practice and reports of the lessons learnt from direct experience of involvement.

NHS England: Placing patients at the heart of the business plan to improve care and access for all. NHS England has published a plan confirming their commitment to putting patients at the heart of improving care now and for future generations. Putting Patients First: the NHS England business plan for 2013/14 – 2015/16 is a three year plan that will measure how health and care services are performing with a strong emphasis on making sure feedback from patients, their families and NHS staff is heard and acted upon. The plan includes an 11-point scorecard, which NHS England will introduce for measuring performance of key priorities, including feedback from patients, their families and NHS staff. This supports the recommendations made by Robert Francis QC to drive forward improvements by putting patients at the heart of the NHS.
Putting Patients First: the NHS England business plan for 2013/14 – 2015/16 builds on Everyone Counts: Planning for Patients 2013/14, NHS England’s earlier planning guidance, which was published in December 2012.

NIHR Central Commissioning Facility: Central Commissioning Facility Patient and Public Involvement Plan 2013-15. This plan outlines what the Central Commissioning Facility will do to support the development of patient and public involvement in their work. From July 2013, they will provide quarterly reports on their progress in delivering the plan.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: Engaging Patients in Improving Ambulatory Care. This American toolkit shows how primary care practices are involving patients in quality improvement efforts as part of their Aligning Forces for Quality (AF4Q) project. The resources includes a variety of tools that health care organisations in these communities have used in their efforts to engage patients. These tools can help recruit, orient, and train patients; clarify roles and responsibilities; and put a structure in place to foster relationships. The accompanying video segments offer lessons and tips for effectively working with patients to improve care.

Stockholm Network Research: Patient Power. What it takes for patient associations to help shape public policy (PDF 961KB). This study, produced by Stockholm Network Research, a Swedish think tank, examines the emergence of patient associations in healthcare policy making in Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia, and Thailand. Country analyses are followed by policy recommendations. Brazil and Thailand are found to have the environments most conducive to new structures that incorporate patient viewpoints.

Welsh Government: Putting well-being for all at the heart of social services. An innovative new document has been published by the Welsh Government to improve the well-being of people who need care and support and carers who need support