The Patient Experience Library

Which technologies offer the biggest opportunities to save time in the NHS?

In the face of huge demand pressures, technology presents a significant opportunity to support workforce capacity in the NHS, as recognised in the 2024 Spring Budget and NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. Drawing on new Health Foundation research - including a UK-wide clinical staff survey and expert interviews - this analysis spotlights clinicians' views about which technologies might help the NHS boost productivity and release time for care, and sets out what steps will be important to realise these gains. Our survey found that electronic health records (EHRs) and tools for professional-to-professional communication (including videoconferencing and digital messaging tools) ranked highest in terms of which technologies are saving staff time right now. This contrasts with the typical health policy emphasis on cutting-edge clinical and patient-facing technologies. Maximising opportunities to free up time in the NHS will require focusing on technologies that can help with administrative and operational tasks and inter-professional communication as well as clinical tasks.

The challenges and potential of intermediate care

The Health Foundation, The challenges and potential of intermediate care, 20th March 2024

How easy is it to give feedback to your GP? Helping patients have their say - Insight Report

In October 2023 we undertook a 'health check' of all GP practice websites in Northumberland across seven primary care networks (PCNs). There are 36 practice websites representing 45 individual surgeries. This was to see how easy it was to find information about how to raise a concern or give positive feedback and to see if signposting information for support in raising a concern was up-to-date and factually correct.

Intelligence Report

The detail in this report applies to July 2024 and refers to the information Healthwatch has received and researched during this period. The report provides the nature of experiences, the intelligence and emerging trends during each monthly period for a range of care providers.

Making caring the 10th protected characteristic - Research Report

Carers UK, Making caring the 10th protected characteristic, Research Report, April 2024

What builds good health? An introduction to the building blocks of health

Health is our most precious asset. Good health and wellbeing enable us to live happy, fulfilling lives and free us up to achieve our potential, supporting positive social and economic outcomes for individuals and society. But we don't all have the same opportunities to live healthy lives. Right now, in parts of the UK, some people are dying years earlier than they should. This isn't inevitable. There is much we can do to reduce these unfair differences by improving the things that underpin our health. Many aspects of our lives impact our health and how long we live. These include our jobs and homes, our access to education, public transport and safe green spaces with clean air, and whether we experience poverty or discrimination. These things are often referred to as the 'wider determinants of health', and they are all essential building blocks of our health. Building a healthy society is like constructing a sturdy building. To succeed, we need all the right blocks in place. This guide is a brief introduction to these building blocks of health. It explains how a person's opportunity for health is influenced by much more than the NHS, and why people in the UK don't all have the same chance to be healthy. It sets out how action to strengthen the building blocks of health can lead to improvements in the health of the whole population, for the benefit of individuals, society and the economy. This guide is for anyone with an interest in people's health and wellbeing. It will be especially useful to those new to the wider determinants of health.

Resident views on adult social care, people with dementia and their carers

At the start of 2024, Healthwatch Brent met with the Brent Adult Social Care team to agree an engagement programme gathering perspectives from local residents about their experiences with adult social care services. The aim of this engagement is to support Brent Council in understanding the real views and experiences of local residents, to support them in improving the service. This work will be separated into multiple phases, reaching out to different groups who may make use of adult social care services. For the first phase of engagement, we have been reaching out to people who have dementia and their carers. In total, we heard from 42 people, and this report highlights their experiences and the things that they would like Brent's adult social care team to reflect on. We would like to express our thanks to Brent Community Action on Dementia and Ashford Place for supporting this project.

Enter and View Report - Crombie House, 36 Hockliffe St, Leighton Buzzard LU7 1HJ

What we heard - July 2024

In July, we spoke to 38 people regarding their experiences with health and social care services in Rotherham

Culturally adaptive healthcare for people with a learning disability from an ethnic minority background, A qualitative synthesis

People with a learning disability face health inequality. Those from ethnic minority backgrounds with a learning disability face 'double discrimination' as members of two marginalised groups.