Blogs

Reflections on 'Next Steps for the Five Year Forward View’, NHS England's delivery plan for the Five Year Forward View.

One of the fundamental principles of the NHS is that it is free at the point of access for all. The exception to this are charges for certain ‘overseas visitors’ including short-term visitors but also people living in the UK with uncertain migration status such as refused asylum seekers.

The Government has announced that from April, new regulations for overseas visitors charging are to be implemented by the NHS. This will have two key impacts: one, that there will now be a legal obligation for hospitals to charge upfront for secondary care, ceasing care where full payment is not received in advance; and two, that charges will be extended to all non-NHS providers of NHS services meaning providers of ‘acute, mental and community NHS services’ will be required to charge in line with overseas visitor rules.

The 'Live your life – living with and beyond lymphoma programme' provides education and support for people who have been diagnosed with and treated for lymphoma. In this blog, the Lymphoma Association's Stephen Scowcroft describes the programme, and how being part of Wellbeing Our Way's supporting self-management community of practice helped the programme's development.

Those of us working in the health sector are well-used to discussing concepts like ‘self-management’, ‘shared decision-making’, and ‘patient activation’.

We all know what they mean and that they represent an undeniable good, but how do we make them a reality? How can we ensure that the 15 million people living with long-term conditions in England are supported in becoming truly active participants in their care?