While many of its findings are positive, a new report from Picker says that overall ratings can mask areas for improvement.
Patients tend to rate their care within NHS England positively, and they feel that staff treat them with respect, although care is rated less highly in community mental health and accident and emergency settings.
A new report from healthcare research charity Picker says that overall ratings can mask areas for improvement: for example, patients suffered negative impacts from long waits to access services, and experienced problems in continuity and communication. For their part, staff reported pressures at work and challenges in coordinating work across teams.
Resolving the issues raised by patients and staff to improve experience and to deliver high-quality person-centred care for all will require a commitment to engagement and co-production with diverse groups of patients and staff.
“Patient experience, voice, and person-centred care are prominent in the Ten Year Plan for Health’s reform ambitions – a timely renaissance given that effectiveness and experience have been sidelined in favour of a focus on safety in recent years,” said Picker chief executive Chris Graham.
“This focus on experience is welcome, and something that we have long advocated for, but the devil will be in the detail. As plans to close Healthwatch England and its local branches suggest, there are differing views on how patient voice should be sought and heard,” he added.
How to improve
The report makes six recommendations for the Department of Health and Social Care to improve the state of person-centred care in the NHS.
First, plans to expand the use of the NHS App should be accompanied by appropriate measures to support those who are at risk of digital exclusion. After the announcement that the government intends to abolish Healthwatch England and its local bodies, an independent patient voice should be safeguarded in the NHS, in some form.
Third, NHS organisations should be empowered to understand and act on the feedback they receive from patients and, at the same time, all NHS staff should be trained in person-centred care.
An update should also be provided on the creation of a Patient Experience Directorate within the department.
Finally, Picker recommends that the role of patient experience champion and its effectiveness should be reviewed by January 2028, with a vision to introduce and mandate a dedicated board-level director of experience role in all NHS provider organisations in the future.
“These roles,” the report says, “should be coordinated and work closely with the national director of patient experience within the department”.
Graham explained that these recommendations are designed “to ensure” that patient empowerment is deeply embedded within the health service.
