Joanne Watson, clinical lead for Hospital Pathways, discusses how the programme has been working so far and what she hopes it will achieve in the future.

Listen to her overview of the Hospital Pathways programme.

The programme gives participating hospitals a unique opportunity to use tried and tested techniques, which are not yet widely used in the NHS, to improve both processes of care and staff-patient interactions. These can together have a profound effect on how patients and staff experience health care.

We are initially working with five trusts to develop a small number of exemplar hospitals and a group of professional staff and managers who can demonstrate what they did to achieve results in this area, allowing them to share their expertise. The trusts involved in the project are Taunton and Somerset, Salisbury, the Royal Free Hampstead, George Eliot Hospital and Northumbria Healthcare NHS trusts. We are running this programme in partnership with The Health Foundation.

Work is getting under way in the first phase of this programme, and our first learning event is planned for summer 2010, with further learning events planned over the next 12 months, and a final celebratory event in 2011.

If you have already shown commitment to transforming patients’ experience of care and would like to be considered for future phases of the programme, or if you would like any more information on the project, please call Bev Fitzsimons on 0781 859 3445 or email b.fitzsimons@kingsfund.org.uk.

Download more information on the Hospital Pathways programme (242 kb) .