NHS long term plan: Patients Association's response
Earlier this week the Prime Minister launched the NHS’s long-term plan, setting out how the £20.5 billion budget settlement for the health service will be spent over the next five years. Key areas of focus in the plan included measures to improve outcomes for major diseases, enhance access to mental health services, and support primary medical and community health services.
The Patients Association’s view is that, while the long term plan has its strengths, patients cannot be assured that the NHS’s future is assured by the plan on its own.
Rachel Power, Chief Executive of the Patients Association, said: “It’s highly unfortunate that failures outside the plan itself mean that on its own it cannot safeguard the future of the health and social care system.
“The Government still lacks any sort of strategy for health and wellbeing, and has not even published its green paper with proposals to end the ongoing social care crisis. The serious and growing shortages in the health and care workforce are a major threat, and could even make the plan undeliverable. Proposals to solve this problem aren’t expected until around the middle of the year. Training and developing skilled staff cannot be done quickly, and it’s not clear whether the Government’s immigration proposals and our exit from the European Union will support recruitment from abroad.
“NHS England has done what was asked of it in terms of developing a coherent plan. The Government now needs to do its part, and get serious about addressing the substantial strategic problems that still pose major threats to the health and care system.”
Rachel was interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Drive time programme this week, and you can hear her give the Association’s views on the plan here (skip forward 2 hours 12mins). Rachel also featured on Channel 5’s Evening News, sharing her thoughts on the NHS long term plan alongside Dr Sarah Wollaston MP (MP for Totnes and Chair of Health and Social Care Select Committee), Dr Sarah Jarvis (GP and medical writer and broadcaster), and Sir Bob Kerslake (former Head of the Civil Service and former Chair for King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust).
For more on our response to the long term plan, read this blog post by our Chief Executive, Rachel Power.
This week we published a new report outlining the findings from a survey and four focus groups of people’s views of their local GP surgery’s buildings, including internal and external aspects of buildings, and accessibility.
The main findings were that buildings differed greatly in terms of levels of maintenance and the services offered by the practices that use them. Confidentiality emerged as a key issue raised by patients, particularly the risk of being overheard at the reception desk or when telephoning practices. Of the 720 respondents to the survey and focus groups, 58% (404 of 692 respondents to this question) said that there was not enough space at the practice to allow reasonable privacy.
Access for people was also highlighted as a concern, both in terms of physically getting to the building, and in accessing the building. While 75% of respondents said there was a ramp at the entrance to the building, less than half (46%) of respondents reported that their building had a lift.
The report was launched at the inaugural meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Healthcare Infrastructure, a group Chaired by Faisal Rashid MP (above, with Rachel Power) that looks at improving NHS estates. The report featured in the Telegraph, the Daily Mail and the British Medical Journal as well as various other media outlets.
NHS England Equality and Diversity Council
The NHS Equality and Diversity Council (EDC), of which the Patients Association is a member, is running an engagement event to ensure that the voices of people from different communities are heard as the EDC develops its work programme for 2019/20. The event, which will take place next Wednesday 16 January 2019, will also consider ways that the EDC can hear from different groups of people using services.
The EDC works to bring people and organisations together to realise a vision for a fair and diverse health and care system, where everyone counts and the values of the NHS Constitution are brought to life.
The Patients Association represents all patients, and we would like to hear your views ahead of this engagement session. What is your experience of care? What has worked well for you, what hasn’t, and how do you think things can be improved? If you belong to any of the nine protected groups below, or feel you have an important story relevant to the EDC’s work that you would like to share, please let us know by emailing weeklynews@patients-association.com. Please indicate within your email whether you would be interested in attending the event on 16 January.
Groups that this piece of work would be particularly relevant to include the following:
Gypsies and travellers
Homeless
Refugees and migrants
People who are LGBT
People with a mental health condition
People from BME or BAME communities
People with a learning difficulty
Women
Younger and older people
People from rural areas
People living with a range of long term health conditions.
Complete our survey on NHS England's consultation on low-value medicines
Thank you to everyone who has responded to our survey on NHS England's proposals to restrict access to certain treatments. If you’ve not completed the questionnaire, there’s still time to take part. Your responses will help to inform our response to the consultation.
How will the restriction of these types of medicines affect you? While we’re interested in hearing about people’s experiences of rationing more generally, this consultation could be particularly relevant to people in England who:
Have type 2 diabetes
Take medicine for their heart rhythm
Use bath or shower preparations for their skin conditions.
You can complete the survey here – it should take around ten minutes to do so. You can also share your views directly with NHS England here.
During the consultation period a range of events organised by NHS England will be taking place to gather feedback on the proposals – you can register for these here. The meetings include face to face events and webinars (online meetings):
Patient and Public Voice member needed for the Rare Diseases Advisory Group
NHS England is seeking to recruit a new patient/public member to its Rare Diseases Advisory Group (RDAG).
The role of RDAG is to make recommendations on how highly specialised services should be commissioned. RDAG members will bring lived experience of a rare disease with capacity to provide independent judgement on issues of strategy, vision and performance in respect of the scope of RDAG.
For an information pack and details of how to apply please email england.voice-crg@nhs.net Deadline for application is 11.59pm on 24 January.
This week we were contacted by a caller who was seeking advice about how to make a complaint following a number of distressing experiences at hospital.
The caller, who suffers from a condition that causes incontinence as well as other symptoms, called our helpline to report that a nurse had performed an internal exam upon her in hospital while allowing a third person to enter the consultation. The nurse had not asked for the patient's explicit consent before this external person entered the room. The caller was extremely concerned and dissatisfied with this experience. She also wished to report her concern that the information given to her by the nurse at the end of the consultation was different to the information contained within the follow-up letter she subsequently received.
To compound matters further, the caller has now been put on a strong course of antibiotics that containing ingredients she is allergic to. This course of treatment was not mentioned at any stage in the consultation or by her GP. The antibiotics arrived in the post on an urgent basis with no information about who is responsible for prescribing them.
Our helpline adviser recommended that the caller contact her GP urgently to ascertain who had prescribed the antibiotics, and to highlight her allergies to the medication. Our adviser also provided information on the complaints system and directed her to the complaints resources on our website. We also directed the caller to the Care Quality Commission so she can feed back her experiences regarding the behaviour of the nurse in hospital.
We've had an increase in callers to our helpline over recent months, and we're hearing in particular from people who need help with making a complaint or information about how to do so. If you need health or care advice, call 0208 423 8999 between 9.30 and 5pm on weekdays, or email helpline@patients-association.com
Our vision is that health and social care will be delivered in a way that meets every person’s health and social care needs.
Our mission is to give effect to the patient voice, to improve patient experience and support people to engage fully in their own care. Find out more about our values on our website.
The Patients Association is a registered charity in England and Wales (1006733). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (02620761)
Registered address: P Block, Northwick Park Hospital, The North West Hospitals NHS Trust, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 3YJ
