Why do we need a duty of candour?
Yesterday the government made a commitment to introduce a statutory duty of candour. This is something the Health Foundation has been calling for and we are pleased that the government has now taken a...
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Health literacy: let's think again
I don't really like the term ‘health literacy’. Not many people really understand what it means, which is a bit ironic when you think about it. My unofficial definition of health literacy is ‘the capa...
Quality improvement: speaking the same language on a national scale
One of the advantages of Wales being a small nation is that rapid improvement on a national scale is manageable within a short time. And yet, like almost every other nation on an improvement journey, ...
Shared decision making: whose life is it anyway?
I had a conversation recently with two midwives. Both had been trained in shared decision making and had the ‘light bulb’ moment when they realised that, although they thought they’d been providing pe...
Handling and resolving complaints post-Francis
The Francis report reminded us that we have a long history of trying to improve the way complaints about health services are handled. Yet we still have a long way to go to make sure patients and famil...
I've got a long-term condition: get me out of here!
Imagine you will no longer be allowed to live your life the way you have been used to. Instead you are to live in the jungle where you will remain for the rest of your days. You face an unfamiliar ...
Leeds General - a good or bad decision?
Over the last few weeks – just as people are still trying to understand what Francis means and when the NHS is dealing with it’s own structural changes – we’ve seen safety very publicly rear its head ...
Proper accountability and the importance of data post-Francis
Data should play a fundamental role in assessing the performance of healthcare organisations. Yet NHS ‘culture’ – a theme so central to the Francis report – fundamentally mistrusts, undervalues and mi...
Hospital-wide mortality rates and measuring quality: smoke alarm not smoke screen
Following the Francis Inquiry, we need to look at the roles of Hospital Standardised Mortality Rates (HSMR) and Summary Hospital-level Mortality Indicators (SHMI). It may seem obvious – given that Mid...
Closing the gate before the horse bolts: a new approach to patient safety
In the 12 years since the establishment of the National Patient Safety Agency, there’s been concerted effort to improve patient safety, largely through the reporting of harm incurred during healthcare...
