Consultation response: Liberating the NHS: No decision about me, without me

This document sets out our thoughts on the Department of Health’s consultation: Liberating the NHS: No decision about me, without me

In this response we highlight two pieces of our recent research:

• Making shared decision-making a reality: no decision about me, without me (Coulter and Collins 2012) produced a clear definition of shared decision-making and outlined what steps need to be taken to implement it.
• Patients’ preferences matter: stop the silent misdiagnosis (Mulley et al 2012) highlighted how ‘silent misdiagnosis’ arises when doctors fail to consult patients about what care they would actually like. Its implications for both better patient care and better use of NHS resources are significant.