NHS England and NHS Improvement believes that patient experience is everybody’s business. Good patient experience is associated with improved clinical outcomes and contributes to patients having control over their own health. We also know that good staff experience is fundamental for ensuring good patient experience. In partnership with a wide range of NHS organisations and voluntary and charitable organisations, NHS England and NHS Improvement seeks to increase the experience of all patients, particularly the most vulnerable, and to reduce health inequalities. We have a strong focus on driving participation and co-production with patients and carers, and on using insight from service users and staff to identify what is working well and what needs to be improved.
NHS England and NHS Improvement is committed to sharing examples of practice to inspire consistent good patient experience across the NHS. You can find out more about our work at: www.england.nhs.uk
What are the experiences that patients/families/carers ‘Always’ want to happen?
What can we learn from improvement science to assist us?
If these are questions you are pondering on too, perhaps Always Events® can assist? Always Events® are defined as “those aspects of the patient and family experience that should always occur when patients interact with healthcare professionals and the health care delivery system”.
NHS England and NHS Improvement, in collaboration with Picker Institute Europe and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), have led an initiative for developing, implementing and spreading an approach, using service improvement methodology to reliably listen to what matters to patients/families/carers.
Genuine partnerships between patients, service users, care partners, and clinicians are the foundation for co-designing and implementing reliable care processes that transform care experiences and this is at the heart of the Always Events® approach, with the goal being the creation of an “Always Experience.” See the toolkit at www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/pe/always-events/
Indicators of how well the NHS services are doing and what should be their focus for improvement work can be found across a suite of national surveys and ad hoc research projects run by the Insight & Feedback team at NHS England and NHS Improvement. These include three major national surveys that are world-leading in healthcare: the GP Patient Survey, the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey and the NHS Staff Survey.
Find out more about this work and access a range of downloadable resources, including bite-size guides, on how the NHS can improve insight on patient experience on our website: https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/insight/