Blogs

All of us in National Voices sign up to the concept of person-centred care, enabling the patient voice to be heard and collaborative decision-making to flourish.  But let me be challenging. Whatever we do at policy or organisational level, our efforts may remain a pipedream unless we can influence the individual consultation: what actually happens between health professionals, patients and family members in that brief moment of time when they come together. What can we do to ensure that each encounter enables the patient to be heard and their views to be taken seriously?

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.