The Patients Association have launched their new project:
"We’re very excited about a major project we recently launched which will take our policy work through to the end of 2020 - the Patient Experience Programme.
We are going to find out what can be done to improve every patient experience of the health and care system as it is now. This will provide the basis for our campaigning, helping us support and publicise the issues that really matter.
How are we going to do it? We’re currently well into the initial research and engagement phase of the programme, having completed a review of information and literature that’s already out there. Now we’re getting views from our members and supporters, questions that were developed from priorities identified in our earlier scoping survey – so thank you to everyone who took part in that one.
The results of this new survey will tell us about the most important things that can improve patients’ experiences and hence what we need to focus on in our policy development. We’ll keep you updated on our progress.
In the meantime, we need as many people as possible to complete our survey - so please do take part and tell your friends and colleagues about it. It takes around 10 minutes to complete but will give us invaluable information for this important piece of work. Thank you."
Sorry, I know I’m being negative here, but I’ve looked at this and quite honestly cannot see how this is going to improve anything?
It might be just me - being ‘that way out’ today, but this survey seems more bothered with whether we like being called patients or not? May as well call us all Customers, as we will all be paying for it shortly!
Odd questions and think the narrow focus on ‘your most recent experience’ limits the view of the bigger picture. For most of us it is not about our last GP/hospital visit, it is about the overall result of poor long term treatment.
Was going on about last illness - which very often would NOT correlate to having treatment (other than self-administered). After all, many of us suffer issues which we just live through and only seek help if it doesn't resolve, or it gets worse. But all the questions are predicated on having sought treatment.
6. All in all, how satisfied or dissatisfied would you say you are with the way in which the National Health Service runs nowadays?
This kind of question is awful. Whatever I answer it could be interpreted several different ways.
If I said I was satisfied it could mean that I think the NHS is fine as it is - but I don't.
If I said I was dissatisfied it could be interpreted as me being happy to have a different system i.e. private. Which I'm not.
If an answer can be spun three or four different ways to suit the agenda of the person asking the question then I don't want to answer the question!
12. Thinking about your current or most recent period of illness, or of using health and/or social care services, how much treatment does it or did it require?
It needs / needed very extensive and/or complex treatment
It needs / needed fairly extensive and/or somewhat complex treatment
It needs / needed relatively light, straightforward treatment
It needs / needed no treatment and will clear up / cleared up on its own
The assumption behind the available answers is that the problem the patient has/had was actually properly diagnosed and treated. That isn't true in lots and lots and LOTS of cases. Doctors often dismiss patients, tell them they are mentally ill, and prescribe anti-depressants, while the problem they went to see the doctor about is left to continue untreated indefinitely. So, for many people the question will be unanswerable.
I could probably criticise many of the questions and sets of answers on the survey.
And using three questions to deal with whether or not people want to be called patients is, in my opinion, bizarre. It's a non-issue that is just a distraction from real medical care or health problems or the lack of funding and staff for the NHS - like Nero fiddling while Rome burns.
mid-14c., "enduring without complaint," from Old French pacient and directly from Latin patientem "bearing, supporting, suffering, enduring, permitting" (see patience). Meaning "pertaining to a medical patient" is late 14c., from the noun. Related: Patiently.
patient (n.)
"suffering or sick person under medical treatment," late 14c., from Old French pacient (n.), from the adjective, from Latin patientem (see patience).
The subject of what word to use has been discussed extensively and intensively. For example, this recent paper:
BMJ Open. 2019; 9(3): e025166.
Published online 2019 Mar 7. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025166
PMCID: PMC6429876
PMID: 30850410
Patient, client, consumer, survivor or other alternatives? A scoping review of preferred terms for labelling individuals who access healthcare across settings
Daniel S J Costa,1,2,3 Rebecca Mercieca-Bebber,1,4,5 Stephanie Tesson,1,5 Zac Seidler,1,5 and Anna-Lena Lopez1,5
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British Gut Project
Please complete Patients' Survey on NICE draft guideline
