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Public and Patient Improvement

Public and Patient Improvement – the NHS White Paper (England), Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS, sets out the government’s long-term vision for the future of the NHS in England. It sets out how the government will:

  • put patients at the heart of everything the NHS does
  • focus on continuously improving those things that really matter to patients – the outcome of their healthcare
  • empower and liberate clinicians to innovate, with the freedom to focus on improving healthcare services.

‘No decision about me, without me’ aspires to an NHS where patients are involved fully in their own care, with decisions made in partnership with clinicians, rather than by clinicians alone.

What this means for the workforce
Developing the healthcare workforce to support public and patient involvement is key to the realisation of the changes proposed in the Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS White Paper.

The changes the healthcare workforce will need to respond to are:

  • The establishment of HealthWatch England. A new independent consumer champion and a statutory part of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), to champion services users and carers across health and social care
  • The evolving of Local Involvement Networks (LINks) into Local HealthWatch. Which will ensure that the views and feedback from patients and carers are an integral part of local commissioning across health and social care
  • Health and wellbeing boards will have a duty to involve users and the public
  • Clinical commissioning groups will have to set out in their annual commissioning plans how they intend to involve patients and the public in their commissioning decisions
  • a duty on Monitor to carry out appropriate public and patient involvement in the exercise of its functions.

Can’t find what you’re looking for?
Skills for Health has developed a range of proven services and products to help you develop a more skilled and flexible workforce and make a difference to patient improvement. If you can’t find the solutions you are looking for here, get in touch today. Some policies, strategies and guidance were developed under the previous government and as such may be subject to review by the Government.