Patients and their carers are our best witnesses of healthcare. Being centre of the healthcare process, unlike most staff, they observe almost the whole process of care, meaning that they can provi...
How do you explain the actions of someone who ignores the plight of an older patient in a soiled bed? Or who fails to respond when a patient cannot reach a glass of water and has not eaten her meal...
Like the curate’s egg, the Prime Minister’s announcement on improving the quality of nursing care on acute wards is good in parts. Given The King’s Fund’s and Health Foundation’s work on nursing ro...
Mary Portas: ‘queen of shops’, government advisor on the high street and TV presenter. In Channel 4’s Secret Shopper, the no-nonsense retail guru took some of the nation’s biggest retailers to task...
Last week saw the 2012 International Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare in Paris, and day two started with an inspiring keynote from the President of the International Health Institute (IHI)...
This month’s Health Affairs contains a touching narrative by Amy Berman, a US health foundation executive who, with the help of a doctor that respected her goals, chose palliative care over aggress...
As the NHS considers the findings of the public inquiry into events at Mid Staffordshire, few would disagree with Francis’ view that there is an urgent need to ensure that the NHS culture is one of...
There is now general recognition that the NHS needs to get to grips with seven day working. This has been reflected in the NHS Commissioning Board Planning Guidance, Everyone Counts: Planning for P...
What does a ‘listening organisation’ look like? What benefits can it bring to our patients and to our staff? The more we involve patients, the more we make their experience of care better. We can i...
Healthcare staff are usually motivated to enter their professions by a desire to make a difference for patients and service users. Why then do they find it so hard to speak up for patients when the...
