Medicines and treatments The importance of safe and effective medicines and treatments being available to patients. Expand 2022 - Consultation response on proposed changes to the guidance on, items which should not be routinely prescribed in primary care. We support the need to review guidance to ensure it remains up to date and that Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are supported to fulfil their duties around appropriate use of their resources. However, co-production and shared decision making should be made integral to the guidance and proposed changes in order to support ICB decision making. 2022 - Consultation response on proposed changes to the guidance on, conditions for which over the counter items should not be routinely prescribed in primary care.We support the need to review this guidance to ensure that Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) are supported to fulfil their duties around appropriate use of their resources. However, co-production and shared decision making should be made integral to the guidance and proposed changes in order to support ICB decision making. 2021 - Consultation response - Aligning the upper age for NHS prescription charge exemptions with the State Pension ageWe oppose proposals to extend prescription charges to patients in England aged 60-65. 2021 - Consultation response - NICE review of health technology evaluation processesWe expressed concern at NICE's proposals to modify their processes to make input by patient and patient organisations more difficult.2020 - Consultation response - NICE consultation on health technologies appraisal methodsIn our comment on NICE's proposals for reviewing its health technologies appraisal methods, we made recommendations to enhance and expand its use of patient experience and feedback.2020 - Consultation response - NICE guideline on arranging planned careWe responded to NICE's rapid-turnaround consultation on a draft guideline for arranging planned care in the context of COVID-19. We recommended numerous measures to improve patients' experiences2020 - Consultation response - Evidence based interventionsIn our response to the proposals for a second wave of restrictions to certain treatments, we expressed concern that the methodology remains unproven and relatively lacking in patient input, albeit that many of the proposals are in line with current good practice.
Engagement and coproduction How patients can be involved in decisions, from their own care through to designing entire systems. Expand 2024 - Letter to the The Rt Hon. the Lord Darzi of Denham OM KBEThe Secretary of State for Health and Care has appointed Lord Darzi to conduct an independent assessment of the state of the NHS in England. We have written to him to offer to share the wealth of data we have on patients' and carers' experiences, and to ask him to ensure he partners with patients during the assessment. 2022 - Consultation response - Working in partnership with people and communities, NHS EnglandNHS England's statutory guidance for Integrated Care Boards, NHS Trusts, and NHS Foundation Trusts presents positive ambitions and lays out the terms of the NHS sharing power with local communities. We welcome these ambitions, but they will require a major change in the NHS’s culture and operation at every level, which may take many years to embed. 2021 - Consultation response - NICE guideline on shared decision makingNICE's guideline on shared decision making is a welcome development in helpling to secure full involvement of patients in decisions about their care.
Structures and organisation How the organisations in the health and care sectors are set up and operated for patients. Expand 2024 - NHS Constitution consultationWe welcomed the announcement of the consultation of the NHS Constitution, as we had called for a review for some time. But we were disappointed when the Government ignored calls to pause or extend the consultation period because the bulk of that time was during the pre-election period and no publicity was possible. We argued that without publicity, people would not know about the consultation and so miss out on a once-in-a-decade opportunity to influence the NHS Constitution. We, however, as an organisation have submitted a response. 2023 - Call for evidence - Hewitt review to consider the oversight and governance of integrated care systems (ICSs).We welcomed the review as an opportunity to reintroduce patient partnership at the heart of governance of the local NHS, something that has been lost in recent NHS reforms. 2022 - Consultation response - Integration white paperIn our comments on the integration white paper, we express concern that it will be able to achieve little without the NHS's workforce crisis being addressed, and that it does not envisage a sufficient role for patients in the future of the NHS.2021 - Evidence submission - Commons Health and Social Care Committee inquiry into the white paperIn response to a call for evidence by the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, we outline our disappointment at the lack of a vision for a strong role for patients in the new NHS arrangements.2021 - Consultation response - Possible changes to NHS legislationIn response to further plans for legislation to improve collaboration in the NHS, we welcome much of the proposals but raise serious concerns about the lack of a clear role for patients in designing and implementing services.
Funding and sustainability The financial dimension of health and social care, and what it means to patients. Expand 2024 - Autumn Budget Submission Our submission recommends that the newly formed Government address continuing long waiting lists for care, expanding opportunities for diagnostics testing, and takes a health in all policies approach. 2021 - Written submission - Representation to HM Treasury ahead of the BudgetFor Budget 2021, we re-submitted our submission to the cancelled 2020 Comprehensive Spending Review, as our analysis remained unchanged and our advice applied broadly across fiscal policy.2020 - Written submission - Representation to HM Treasury for the 2020 Comprehensive Spending ReviewWe recommend that the Comprehensive Spending Review should be used to allocate funds for a cross-governmental, strategic response to health and care challenges, including the impact of COVID-19. 2020 - Written submission - Representation to HM Treasury for the March 2020 BudgetOur submission reiterates our key calls from the 2019 spending round: social care, the NHS and a strategic approach to health, care and wellbeing.
Workforce Issues relating to the health and social care workforce, including doctors, nurses and other professionals Expand 2025 - Consultation response - Leading the NHS: proposals to regulate NHS managers NHS England launched this consultation to support the development of their new leadership and management framework, which will introduce a code of practice, a set of core standards and a development curriculum for managers. We responded based on a survey of our membership and previous insights. 2023 - Position statement on new health professions providing services to patientsWe believe every healthcare professional should receive appropriate supervision, maintain high standards of care and roles must be clearly defined and communicated to avoid any confusion or overlap with other healthcare professionals. We updated the statement in July 2024 to add new research from Healthwatch England on people’s experience and understanding of physician associates, one of the new health professional roles. 2023 - Position statement - NHS Long Term Workforce PlanWe welcome the long awaited NHS Long Term Workforce Plan as genuinely ambitious and an important milestone for both staff and patients. The plan will be successful if it results in the expansion of safe, effective and compassionate care and it leads to more patients being partners in their own care and in the design and delivery of the services they use. 2022 - Position statement - Safe staffingSafe staffing refers to having enough members of staff with the values and skills to deliver high quality care to patients. Safe staffing is a system wide issue. A trained, competent, and supported workforce with sufficient numbers to deliver high quality patient centred care is an essential component of patient safety. Without an adequate workforce, patient care and safety are compromised. This position statement outlines the views of the Patients Association on safe staffing. 2022 - Consultation response - GMC Good medical practice The General Medical Council consulted on its core guidance on professional standards, Good medical practice. It sets out the standards of care and professional behaviour expected of all medical professionals registered with the GMC. This was the first up date in a decade to the standards. In our response, we welcome the focus on kind, compassionate care for patients. 2021 - Consultation response - Review of professional regulatorsWe were invited to complete this questionnaire as part of the ongoing review of professional regulation. 2021 - Consultation response - Regulating healthcare professionalsResponding to proposals to reform how healthcare professionals are regulatied, we argue for stronger involvement of patients in many of the key processes. 2021 - Consultation response - PSA accredited registersIn this response, we give patients' views on how accredited, voluntary registers for healthcare professionals can be valuable, and also how they can be improved.
Ethical and societal issues Challenging and wide-ranging issues that have a bearing on health and care, as well as other aspects of society. Expand 2025 - Position statement on assisted dying The Patients Association neither supports nor opposes a change in the law relating to assisted dying and assisted suicide. 2020 - Consultation response - ABPI code of practiceWe welcome the principles and approach to working with voluntary sector organisations of the ABPI's code.
Technology Digital and other technologies have the potential to transform how patients experience care. Expand 2025 - The Patients Association response to the Digital Inclusion Action Plan: First Steps consultation The Patients Association welcomes the cross-government initiative to lessen the digital divide and ensure that more people have access to the digital initiatives they need to improve their health and wellbeing. In this document we outline suggestions for ensuring the Action Plan is successful. 2021 - Consultation response - NHS data strategyWe welcomed the proposals for the NHS's data strategy, but urged that it be developed and delivered in partnership with patients, with greater transparency and engagement to ensure that patients maintain confidence in how the NHS uses their data.
Patient experience Every aspect of how people experience care, from GP access to hospital food. Expand 2025 - Consultation response - Submission to call for evidence on Shaping the national cancer planWe welcome many of the proposed approaches outlined by the Department of Health and Social Care in this call for evidence. It is critical however that the national cancer plan is designed and delivered in partnership with patients. 2023 - Consultation response - Submission to call for evidence for the Major Conditions StrategyWe submitted evidence on how best to prevent, diagnose treat and manage six major groups of conditions based on what we heard in our survey. 2021 - Consultation response - Non-emergency patient transportOur response to proposals arising from the review of non-emergency patient transport2021 - Consultation response - Submission to call for evidence for a Women's Health StrategyWe submitted evidence for the planned Women's Health Strategy, outlining what women told us about their experiences of health and care. 2021 - Consultation response - Clinical standards for urgent and emergency careIn our response to proposals to change the NHS's approach to waiting times in A&E, we outline patients' views, which are overall supportive of the new measures. 2020 - Report - Being A PatientThe first report from our programme of work on patient experience.2020 - Report - Being A Patient - AppendixDetails of the methodology and full survey results from our report 'Being A Patient'.
Politics and elections National political events can have a bearing on the experiences of patients for years afterwards. Expand 2025 - The Patients Association response to the National Policy Forum: Building an NHS fit for the future - Fixing the foundations to end hospital backlogsOur consultation response focuses on several key issues, such as the importance of expanding primary care to increase access to community initiatives, utilising digital advancements to improve the joining up of services around patients, and the importance of taking early action to prevent people from developing illnesses. 2024 - Our welcome to the new Prime MinisterWe wrote to The Rt Hon Sir Keir Starmer to congratulate him and emphasise the need to deliver on promises made by Labour during the election campaign. 2024 - Our letter to the new Secretary of State for Health and CareIn our letter to Wes Streeting, we welcome his honesty about the crisis in the NHS, offered to work in partnership with him and his team to reverse the crisis, and shared the findings from our survey of patients, carried out just before the general election in July. 2024 - The Patients Association general election manifesto Our manifesto, Patients can't wait, sets out actions the next Government must take to ensure more people are able to get the care they need and make patient partnership across health and care services. Reversing the normalisation of the crisis the NHS faces and rebuilding the relationship patients have with the NHS must be addressed urgently. 2023 - Letter to new health ministers We wrote to the newly appointed health ministers in November to share our six principles of patient partnership. 2023 - Letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social CareOur Chief Executive wrote to the Health Secretary Victoria Atkins in September to welcome her to her new role. 2023 - Letter to the Prime Minister Rishi SunakOur letter to the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asked him to intervene to ensure the NHS has the resources it needs to deal with winter pressures and that patients get the treatment they need. 2023 - Letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Our Chief Executive wrote to the Health Secretary to welcome his mention of our Time to Choose report and patient choice at the Conservative Party conference. 2023 - Letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social CareSir Robert Francis KC and our Chief Executive wrote to the Health Secretary Steve Barclay in January calling on the Government to show clear leadership and declare a national incident in the NHS, with clearly communicated plans that protect patient safety and reduce the number of excess deaths related to the crisis. 2022 - Letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Our Chief Executive wrote to the Health Secretary Thérèse Coffey in September to welcome her to her new role. 2022 - Letter to the Secretary of State on Health and Social Care Our Chief Executive wrote to the Health Secretary in July asking him to take action to prevent a deterioration in NHS services that we warned would lead to unnecessary deaths.
Safety What it means when things go wrong in health and social care, and how they can be put right. Expand 2024 - Consultation Response to the Patient Safety Commissioner Principles of Better Patient Safety The role of the Patient Safety Commissioner is to promote patient safety in relation to medicines and medical devices and to promote patients' voices. We welcomed the Commissioner's Principles of Better Patient Safety, as they show a clear a commitment to treating patients as equals in their care and putting them at the centre of the health system 2024 - Consultation response - Duty of candourA statutory duty of candour was introduced in 2014 for NHS trusts and extended in 2015 to all other health and social care providers registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), including care homes. The duty places a direct obligation upon trusts to be open and honest with patients and service users, and their families, when something goes wrong that appears to have caused or could lead to moderate harm or worse in the future (known as a ‘notifiable safety incident’). Our response to the consultation is based on what we heard from members through a survey, namely that the majority of them did not believe the purpose of the statutory duty of candour is clear and well understood. 2024 - Consultation response - Never events Never events are defined by the NHS as "serious incidents that are wholly preventable" because systems exist to prevent their occurrence. The NHS England National Patient Safety Team sought views on whether the existing Never Events Framework continued to serve as an effective mechanism to drive patient safety improvement. We responded that the definition should be revised and a new system created that does not require all relevant incidents to be ‘wholly preventable’. 2022 - Position statement - Safe staffingSafe staffing refers to having enough members of staff with the values and skills to deliver high quality care to patients. Safe staffing is a system wide issue. A trained, competent, and supported workforce with sufficient numbers to deliver high quality patient centred care is an essential component of patient safety. Without an adequate workforce, patient care and safety are compromised. This position statement outlines the views of the Patients Association on safe staffing. 2022 - Consultation response - Fixed recoverable costsWe responded to proposals to limit the legal costs that people can recover when they have been harmed by the NHS, pointing out the dangers of excluding people from justice. 2021 - Consultation response - The appointment and operation of the Patient Safety CommissionerWe argued for the arrangements for the Commissioner's appointment and operation to guarantee their independence as securely as possible, and expressed disappointment that the role will not cover all aspects of patient safety. 2021 - Consultation response - CQC strategyResponding to CQC's draft strategy, we welcomed the strong patient focus and recommended greater clarity on how success would be evaluated.2020 - Consultation response - Framework for involving patients in patient safetyWe responded to the consultation on the draft framework for involving patients in patient safety. The response is a PDF automaticlaly generated by the online questionnaire. 2020 - Consultation response - Draft Complaints Standards FrameworkWe responded to PHSO's online questionnaire about its draft Complaints Standards Framework.2020 - Premature discharge from hospitalThis report describes the experiences of patients who were discharged from hospital when they were not well enough. 2020 - Consultation response - Response to NHS Improvement's consultation on the Patient Safety Specialist roleWe welcome the creation of the new role, and call for it to be empowered to lead effectively on safety within NHS Trusts.