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Transforming practice: tips for improving patient experience
Is there anything you could start doing differently right now as a health care professional that might transform your patients’ experiences?The start of a new year is traditionally a time to reflect on how to do things differently in the future, and the smallest things – often easily rectified – can sometimes make the biggest difference to patients because they signal that staff care. Some of the case studies shared at our Point of Care conference last year add weight to this theory, and the stories have some useful and practical tips that can transform practice... read on
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We can't go on like this
The government’s ‘big care debate’ on how we pay for an ageing population – in part designed to wean us off an uncritical reliance on general taxation as the solution to all funding problems – concluded in 2009. As the parliamentary passage of the Personal Care at Home Bill draws to a close, it seems likely that from next October those with the highest needs should get their care at home (but not in care homes) for free.Yet 2010 has already shown that a week is a long time in the politics of social care funding. Yesterday the Liberal Democrats changed their position on their promised universal care guarantee until it ‘becomes affordable again’. For the Tories, free personal care at home was never on the agenda. So it seems to be a case of either free care for the few, not the many (Labour); for the many, when we can afford it (Liberal Democrats); or for no-one except the very poorest (Conservatives)... read on
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Tories, targets and transparency
We’re only one week into the new year and already the election season has begun in earnest, and it seems that health care will loom large as an issue. At The King’s Fund we will be busy working with all the main parties, attempting to make sense of their proposals and to analyse the possible effects on the health and social care system.As during previous elections, the Fund will continue to be a hub for health care debate, and on Friday David Cameron came to the Fund for a live webcast on the NHS. He answered questions from the public and professionals posted on the Conservative’s website, following the launch of the Conservative’s health manifesto earlier in the week. ... read on
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Operating Framework: Playing with the levers
David Nicholson’s ‘call to action’ – otherwise known as the Operating Framework for 2010/11 – will look familiar to the NHS, with many of its messages consistently reinforcing the direction set by the Next Stage Review. Where it does digress from previous years is in the number of system levers being pulled to help steer the NHS though the challenging financial times ahead.The Payment by Results system has worked well, if not rather crudely, to incentivise increases in acute hospital activity when this was desirable to meet access targets... read on
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Weathering the financial storm
There is no shortage of ideas to help the NHS weather the gathering financial storm: this was the main message from today’s breakfast debate at The King’s Fund, which brought together perspectives from commissioning and strategic planning in the NHS.Speakers identified many opportunities to save money, many of them familiar: stop doing procedures that produce no benefit for the patient, stop procedures in hospitals that could be done in community settings for less, avoid duplication of specialist services and infrastructure, don’t waste valuable clinical staff time in the community on form filling that could be done by someone else, enable patients to take more care of themselves, and make better use of under-used NHS land and buildings. ... read on
About the blog
Welcome to The King’s Fund Blog. Here you will find up-to-date comment and analysis on the key issues surrounding health and social care in England. We actively encourage comments and discussion on the blog, to further the debate and to help inform our thinking. To comment, please take a few moments to register with us. Please read our comments policy.