Blog

David Maguire discusses the issues surrounding premature discharge or people leaving hospital too soon and the effect this may have on re-admission rates.

Joni Jabbal looks at what enables NHS acute trusts to take data from inpatient surveys, understand it, work with it, and use it to improve patient experience overall.

Do the public still trust doctors and nurses to deliver high-quality care and put patients, interests first, or could high-profile failings and inspection results have contributed to a change in public opinion?

The NHS needs to effectively manage its common resources more money and greater efficiency won't be enough.

Helen Gilburt asks is it time for an honest conversation about the impact of cost-saving measures on the quality of care in mental health services?

Young people, and their families, are extremely able to express what they need and have done so clearly. It is now imperative that providers and commissioners work together to meet those needs, building on the momentum of Future in mind.

When the Care Quality Commission suggested in its recent State of Care report that safer, better care does not necessarily cost more the inclusion of the word necessarily was important, says Helen McKenna.

Healthwatch England's recent report, Safely home, described in harrowing detail the personal stories of patients who felt that their discharge from hospital was unsupported. It also described patients marooned in acute beds unable to move on. So how can older people's care be improved?

Kirsty Morrison look through our digital archive to explore the Fund's work on patient involvement.

Misuse occurs in the NHS when health services are poorly delivered. So how big is the problem of preventable harm in health care?

NHS.UK is set to become the place we go, not just for information about health and local services, but to book appointments, manage repeat prescriptions and access health records and care plans. James Higgott agrees this needs to be done but doesn't think it's going to be easy.

Tackling persistent inequalities requires consistent, sustainable action and intervention, which in turn requires stable, committed system leadership with a focus on population health systems.

Underuse happens when effective care isn’t delivered when it’s needed and it can lead to people needing more complex care as their conditions get worse. So, where might the NHS not be delivering enough of the right things?

More health care is not always better health care. Sometimes the NHS delivers services that people don’t want or need: the problem of overuse.

The rising trend in cheaper generic medicines rather than proprietary or branded drugs being prescribed and dispensed has saved the NHS billions of pounds and enabled millions more prescriptions to be dispensed.

The rising proportion of operations carried out as day cases over the past few decades has been good for patients and a much more efficient use of NHS resources, says John Appleby.

The connection between housing conditions and health has a long and well-evidenced historical provenance. But if integrating health and social care is a tough nut to crack, does the prospect of engaging with another massive system risk adding another layer of complexity?

Matthew Honeyman reflects on discussions at our recent Digital Health and Care Congress.

There is a long way to go before mental health achieves ‘parity of esteem’ with physical health, and the voluntary and community sector is key to helping address this challenge.

For many years, The King's Fund was one of the leading voices on hospital diets and patient nutrition. Here, Ruth Nitkiewicz takes a look through our digital archive, analysing the various recommendations that have been made down the years.