Your Involvement
In This Section...
The NHS has a statutory duty to
involve patients in service planning and operation (Health and
Social Care Act 2001), and in the development of proposals for
change. The NHS Centre for
Involvement has been established to help
the NHS in fulfilling these duties by creating services that are
directly shaped by the views and experiences of patients and the
public. GP practices too have a duty to involve patients in making
changes in the practice, and in helping implement appropriate
improvements. There is good evidence that trusting and respecting
the user/patient at a number of levels in the system improves
health and well-being significantly.
A recent consultation by the NHS
found that patients wanted the following from their NHS
treatment:
- Good treatment in a comfortable,
caring, safe environment; delivered in a calm and reassuring
way.
- Enough information to make
choices, to feel confident, and to feel in control.
- Being talked to and listened to as
an equal.
- Being treated with honesty,
respect and dignity.
This section explains how
patients can become involved in improving NHS services in order to
achieve these standards. This may be through participation in a
local or national patient group; but could also entail directly
commenting on services. The NHS is also keen that patients with
long term illnesses share the expert knowledge they have gained
about their condition.
The NHS has produced a guide
-
Tools
and Techniques for Involving Patients, Users and
Carers - which outlines the many methods that the
NHS has envisaged for involving patients. It has also issued
guidance to NHS employees -
Now
I Feel Tall: what a patient-led NHS feels like –
which provides advice on improving patients’ emotional experience
of the service.