2020: A care system fit for
patients
The Patients Association
JANUARY 2015
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients
1. CONTENTS
1. Contents ......................................................................................... 2
2. Foreword ......................................................................................... 2
3. Our mission .................................................................................... 3
4. Our vision for 2020 ......................................................................... 4
(a) Dignity in Care ...................................................................................................... 4
(b) Transparency, Accountability and Complaints ...................................................... 6
(c) Access and Quality ............................................................................................... 9
5. Conclusion.....................................................................................12
6. Contact details ..............................................................................12
2. FOREWORD
Listening to news stories about the NHS over the last two decades, you would be
forgiven for thinking it is in perpetual crisis. However, given with the scale of the
challenges facing the NHS, it is hard not to believe it could be at ‘breaking point’.
The recent ‘Five Year Forward View’ published by NHS England offers a realistic
roadmap to addressing many financial and structural challenges, assuming political
and organisational commitment can be secured and sustained.i However, the
challenges in the NHS must not excuse failings in the quality of treatment or patients’
experience of care. The NHS must never lose sight of the impact on the patient
throughout the tough years ahead. This document outlines the Patients
Association’s vision for how this can be achieved.
A key principle in ensuring patients have the best experience of care is sustaining an
open and honest culture in the NHS - a truly patient-centred culture where the needs
of patients, their families and carers are paramount in all contacts. Often this
involves addressing problems as they arise, not ignoring them until they become
worse. There are significant costs to patients and the NHS if issues are not tackled
early. For instance, if patients do not have the confidence in health services due to
poor communication by health professionals, they often feel unable to raise issues
about their health or complain. This means that the NHS will fail to learn where and
how it is falling short, and systemic issues can persist. In turn, patients who do not
access healthcare or receive timely treatment or diagnoses are more likely to visit
A&E departments, raising NHS costs. An ongoing lack of coordination between
health and care services persists in many areas, deepening the problem. The
results are further costs to the NHS and social care system, as well as distress to
patients and their families.
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients
It is not all bad news. Indeed, whilst there are ongoing failings in patient care in
parts of the NHS, many patients continue to tell us about the excellent care and
treatment they have received. People working in the NHS are incredibly dedicated
to offering the highest quality support, and the Patients Association recognises and
celebrates that dedication in its work.
We are committed to ongoing improvement of the NHS for the benefit of patients,
families and carers. Being a critical friend to the NHS and working in partnership
with healthcare organisations and professionals gives us the opportunity to address
patient concerns. A key frustration for our members, helpline callers and our staff is
that the NHS already has broad solutions to many of the concerns raised about
quality of care and support. These answers are in the NHS Constitution.
The Constitution gives clear and positive messages about the experiences patients
should have, what the NHS should be, and how it should function.ii Fundamental
values, principles, and above all patients’ rights are enshrined in the Constitution.
This should be the first place healthcare professionals or patients look for guidance
on what good care and service looks like. Certainly, if all NHS providers embraced
the Constitution, we would be much closer to having the NHS we all deserve as
patients, family members and the public.
In line with the rights, values and principles of the Constitution, and our decades of
experience of listening to patients, we are proud to outline our vision for patients and
the NHS for 2020. We offer our expertise, drive and support in making this vision a
reality.
3. OUR MISSION
The Patients Association is a health and social care charity which for over 50 years
has advocated for better access to accurate and independent information for patients
and the public; equal access to high quality health care for patients; and the right for
patients to be involved in all aspects of decision making regarding their health care.
By listening to patients, we are able to campaign to improve services. We regularly
work with all healthcare providers to improve services. Very often patients think they
are alone with the problem or complaint they have. When patients talk to us, we are
able to identify local and national issues, and influence change on their behalf.
The fundamental component of our mission is to listen to patients, their carers and
families. This enables us to fulfill our other goals of:
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influencing healthcare policy
acting as agents for transformational change
collaborating with other like-minded agencies to improve healthcare
offering our members’ views to NHS, media and government to shape
debate
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients
4. OUR VISION FOR 2020
Overview
This vision document offers our analysis on the key issues for patients, taking into
account the current challenges faced by the NHS, and what the aspirations should
be for the next five years. This analysis is based on our years of experience
listening to patients’ views and working with healthcare professionals, in addition to
our practice and research projects. As a result of what patients tell us, we outline the
key actions needed to improve patients’ experience of care in the NHS, and offers
our support in doing so. From our analysis, these actions are distilled into three key
themes:
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Dignity and Compassion in Care
Complaints, Honesty, Transparency and Accountability
Access and Quality
(a) Dignity in Care
Our beliefs
We believe that all patients and their carers should be treated uniformly with dignity,
respect and compassion. This is not a fringe idea; this belief is enshrined within the
NHS Constitutioniii, and in the aspirations of the NHS Outcomes Framework.iv
Current situation
Patients, and their carers and family members, should be supported to feel
empowered to ask questions, highlight issues and be engaged with health
professionals when planning care as equal partners. However, while many people
receive excellent support, frequently we see evidence that patients and their families
have been ignored or undermined in the care they receive. Mary’s story (not her real
name) is typical of many calls we receivev:
Mary was most concerned to receive a call from the hospital at 9.15pm to say her
mother who had been recovering from a stroke was being discharged from
hospital. Mary lives 25 miles away and could not get to her mother’s home. She
lived on her own. Mary had to contact a neighbour to prepare the house for her
mother. Mary pleaded with the nurse not to send her mother home to an empty
house but she was told the hospital needed the bed for an emergency. Mary
was very upset and wanted to write to the hospital. She feels there was no
communication or compassion.
The importance patients place on being treated with dignity and respect must not be
understated. Our recent report ‘Why our NHS should listen and be human’
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients
highlighted that some patients would rate being treated with dignity and respect
higher than safety concerns.vi
The core principle must be to treat patients and their families as people, rather than
a diagnosis or number. We describe this as ‘being human’ in caring for others. This
means that NHS practice always must reflect that patients need to be listened to and
treated with a human touch, dignity, compassion and respect.vii
Vision
Our vision is that by 2020, the vast majority of patients will feel they have been
treated with dignity, compassion and respect by NHS staff throughout their
experience of care.
This vision is ambitious, and naturally there are a number of activities that would be
necessary to make it a reality. Fortunately, there are a number of clear actions that
can be taken by NHS organisations and staff to achieve this goal.
Actions and measures
The path to ensuring patients are treated with dignity should focus on the four key
issues highlighted by our CARE Campaign.viii All health and social care staff should:
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Communicate with compassion
Assist with toileting, ensuring dignity
Relieve pain effectively
Encourage adequate nutrition
Through contacting our national helpline, patients have highlighted that these issues
are crucially important to them. As such, NHS organisations and healthcare
professionals must make a commitment to improve patient experience on these
issues, as the best path to ensure patients are treated with dignity, compassion and
respect in all circumstances.
We have a number of asks, directed to different stakeholders within this system.
Trust Boards should:

sign up to our CARE Challenge by the end of 2015: “as a minimum, all patients
should get assistance when they call for help, encouragement to eat or drink,
assistance with going to the toilet, and have their pain addressed.” All
organisations should report on progress annually. We have a range of
resources and examples of great practice from organisations already signed
up, which show how improvements can be made locally to how patients can be
treated with dignity, compassion and respect.
CCGs and GPs should:
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engage, involve and empower patients to make informed choices through
improving the communication process:
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o offering clear information about treatment options, and what to expect from
a primary care service. This must include how primary and secondary care
services should coordinate and provide a seamless service to patients.
o providing opportunities for patient feedback, to ensure that patients are
able and confident to express their views, and have them taken seriously.
It is equally vital that patients are informed how their feedback has been
acted upon.
o establishing a supportive, welcoming and non-threatening environment to
promote an attitude of trust between staff and patients.
NHS England should:
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add questions on the four CARE Challenge issues to NHS Patients Experience
surveys by end 2015, as a measure of whether these issues are being
addressed for patients.
Health and social care professionals should:
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undertake training in line with CARE challenges in order to ensure these issues
are uniformly addressed in staff practice (particularly nursing professionals,
given their level of interaction with patients). Support from managers and
commissioners will be essential to ensure change is implemented and
sustained, and coordinated with wider workforce planning and development.
Local and national politicians should:

offer their support for the Care Challenge, promoting this with local people and
NHS.
These actions above must be taken in collaboration with the NHS, patients, families
and other agencies. Following these recommendations, We believe it is achievable
that by 2020, at least 90% of all patients will report that they are always treated with
dignity, respect and compassion by staff within all NHS organisations. These
improvements must then be maintained in future years. The most recent results for
overall patient experience in these settings vary from around 75 - 80%.ix So while
there is plenty of room for improvement, this is an achievable vision.
(b) Complaints, Honesty, Transparency and
Accountability
Our beliefs
We believe that the NHS should be totally transparent and accountable to
patients. This view is supported by the NHS Constitution, which identifies
transparency and accountability as core principles.x In turn, these principles need to
be backed up with a reliable complaints system.
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients
Current situation
Many organisations within the NHS are models of openness and candour. However,
in 2011, the Parliamentary Health Select Committee found thatxi:
“There are unwarranted variations in how the complaints system works across
England, some elements of the system are ineffective, and the cultures that exist
often do not support effective resolution and redress”
We have seen little evidence that this situation has improved since then. Too often
the Association hears from patients whose reasonable complaints or concerns have
been ignored. Frequently family members have struggled to hold organisations to
account for failings in the care or treatment their relatives and friends have received.
And patients have repeatedly experienced difficulty in communicating their concerns
to healthcare professionals.
Many examples are highlighted in our report, ‘Handling Complaints with a Human
Touch’, and the comment below is typical of many patients’ frustrationsxii:
“Complaints are met with defensiveness and a lack of desire to acknowledge
the truth”
We have all seen the inevitable destination at the end of that road, as cruelly
demonstrated by the appalling failures at Mid Staffordshire Hospital.xiii While that is
an extreme example, we all must be vigilant and uncompromising in pushing the
NHS to reflect on and improve itself as a whole. The NHS will only improve with
meaningful consultation with patients and a willingness to learn its mistakes as well
as celebrating its strengths. Indeed, from speaking to our supporters, we know that
the most common motivation for patients making complaints is not for individual
redress, but to ensure that others do not have similar experiences.xiv
What is worse is that the supposed ‘last resort’ for complainants, the Parliamentary
Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO) appears to be inadequate, unaccountable and
untouchable.xv We have heard from too many patients who have felt ‘stonewalled’ by
the PHSO, who have seen investigators make crucial mistakes in investigations, and
have witnessed terribly flawed decisions. We need an Ombudsman that adopts the
same set of principles it expects NHS Trusts to adopt when handling complaints. xvi
Being an open and reflective NHS means providing a reliable path for patients to
raise concerns or complaints. We appreciate that despite the best efforts of
professionals, there will be times when things go wrong and failings in care occur.
Indeed, we have found that patients accept that staff may not always be able to
answer concerns for a variety of reasons, but do welcome professionals addressing
uncertainty directly with them to avoid ambiguity.xvii While great efforts should be
made to ensure these incidents are minimised, there needs to be a reliable
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients
complaints system in place, locally and nationally to ensure failings can be identified,
investigated and resolved.
Vision
Our vision is for a truly transparent and accountable NHS by 2020, with an open
culture of learning from mistakes to better serve patients, their families and carers in
future. In practice, this means two things: (a) widespread understanding and
application of the NHS Constitution by frontline professionals, senior NHS managers,
patients and families; and (b) a more responsive, humane and transparent
complaints system.
Actions and measures
By 2020, patients deserve to see these achievements from stakeholders:
The Government should:
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
extend the duty to promote the NHS Constitution to all NHS bodies, including
NHS Foundation Trusts and Monitor.
undertake an independent review of the role and accountability of the PHSO in
2015, including legislation relating to these issues, with a revamped PHSO or
entirely new body put in place before 2020.xviii
NHS England should:


strongly promote the NHS Constitution to patients and ensure NHS organisations
are aware of their responsibilities under this Constitution.
measure patients’ understanding of the NHS Constitution via regular feedback
mechanisms (in partnership with the Patients Association). By 2020, over 95% of
patients should be aware of their rights under the NHS Constitution, and
comfortable with applying them as needed.
Local and national politicians should:

offer ongoing support for patients to exercise their rights under the NHS
Constitution, and help patients, the Patients Association and other support
organisations to address shortfalls by NHS organisations.
All NHS organisations should:
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demonstrate their compliance with the NHS Constitution annually in partnership
with patients
adopt the Patients Association Complaints Charterxix, and commit to upholding
this at Board level.
publish the number of complaints they have received quarterly, the action taken,
and the impact of that action.
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients


meaningfully consult patients, families and carers about all significant
developments on planning, delivery and evaluation of NHS services.
Sign up to the Patients Association Benchmarking survey on complaints
handling.
Amongst other aspects, meaningful consultation means ensuring all sectors of the
community (including seldom heard and hard to reach groups) are actively
encouraged to participate; offering adequate time to respond; presenting information
in different formats to engage all audiencesxx; engaging patients, carers and family
stakeholders before significant decisions have been made; and truly making those
decisions in partnership with patients and carers.
Patients, family members and carers should:

use the NHS Constitution and the Patients Association Complaints Charter as
tools to support them get the care they deserve.
In turn, we will promote the NHS Constitution and Complaints Charter to patients,
politicians and healthcare professionals at every opportunity.
(c) Access and Quality
Our beliefs
Fundamentally, we believe that patients should have access to the support they
need, when they need it. We want all patients to have access to the best care,
regardless of their location or circumstances.
Two crucial factors underpinning our belief are access and quality. For us, access
means more than a treatment being ‘available’. Access is not joining a queue or
being on a waiting list. Access means actually getting the treatment or information
you need to support your health. In turn, quality means that the clinical care and the
treatments patients receive are of the highest standard.
These aspects are clearly interlinked. There is no point having the best quality
treatments if most patients are unable to access them. Equally, poor care or
outdated treatments fail to safeguard patients’ health and undermine confidence in
the NHS as a whole.
Current situation
Access
When considering access, it is hard to ignore regular media reports that many
services are subject to a ‘postcode lottery’, and that there is lack of availability of
support for specific conditions.xxi Even for standardised treatments, patients are
often still waiting too long, comparing against the standards set by the Department of
Health. For example, waiting times for a number of procedures including hernia and
adenoid procedures have increased over the last four years.xxii
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients
Likewise, the waiting time data the Patients Association has received via Freedom of
Information requests to NHS Trusts has been hugely variable in quality and
completeness. This mirrors issues in waiting times collection and measurement
identified by the National Audit Office.xxiii This situation does not simply have
implications for those who collect data. Without a clear understanding of how waiting
times for different procedures are changing, it is impossible to appropriately direct
resources to where improvements are needed. This risks NHS providers acting in
direct contradiction to patients’ rights under the NHS Constitution to access services
within maximum waiting times.xxiv While we work to improve the speed of access to
health services with our NHS partners, we also need to ensure that the system for
reporting waiting times is fit for purpose.
Access to treatments is only part of the picture. Surveys undertaken for our report
‘Access Denied’ revealed that:
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more than a third of working age people have had to take time off work to
attend an GP appointment.
a third of respondents were unable to book a GP appointment at least 48 hours
in advance.
Over half of respondents felt that booking a GP appointment was either “very
difficult” or “could have been easier”.
Over half of respondents were not satisfied with the service they received from
an NHS out-of-hours provider in the last 2 years.xxv
This demonstrates that even for initial consultations or support, there is still a long
way to go to ensure patients can get the support they need, when they need it.
Access
Quality
There are many issues to be addressed regarding the quality of care received by
patients. Crucially, there are ongoing debates about how treatments are approved
for use on the NHS by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
NICE’s Board decided in September 2014 to leave their drug appraisal system
unchanged following months of consultation and debate around a new system called
‘value based assessment’. In turn, they agreed to a further review into the potential
integration of wider societal benefits and burden of illness measures. Given the
impacts changes may have for the treatments available on the NHS, patients will
need to be meaningfully included in these discussions to ensure their needs are
incorporated in any future changes.
Access to and quality of healthcare are both major concerns which will always
require scrutiny by patients, charities, the NHS, government and the wider public.
We appreciate that it is likely there will always be some form of geographical
variation in treatment availability (though not necessarily the dreaded ‘postcode
lottery’) in the NHS, as a result of differing local decisions, local population needs,
funding allocations and varying uptake of new technologies and treatments. But we
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients
agree with the Care Quality Commission’s pledge to call “time on unacceptable
variation in the quality of care”.xxvi
Equally, we respect that there is not infinite funding for treatments on the NHS.
Decisions made by local commissioners or NICE can be controversial and open to
challenge. We understand difficult decisions need to be made, in order to make the
best use of NHS funding for the greatest number of patients. However, we cannot,
and will not accept that patients in one part of the country should be denied
treatments simply by virtue of their location. Equally, no patient should ever receive
a poor clinical quality of care.
Vision
Our vision for 2020 is that patients have access to the best possible quality
healthcare, delivered in a manner appropriate to their needs, whenever they need it.
In particular, this would include a primary care system that is fit for the 21st century,
ensuring patients are provided with the right services swiftly after presenting to
primary care, and supported to stay out of hospital as far as possible.
The Patients Association will continue to work with the NHS to ensure patients,
carers and family members are involved in discussions and activities on the wider
structural issues relevant to access and quality. We welcome the proposals on the
diversification of GP and hospital services outlined in the NHS ‘Five Year Forward
View’.xxvii As such, we will work to ensure patients have the choice and support
necessary to be treated in the community and their own homes as needed. Indeed,
many patients report to us that they would prefer to be treated at home rather than in
hospitals or other in-patient settings. This will require brave choices to be made
about how health and social can be integrated. But we will work tirelessly to ensure
these choices are informed by, and benefit, patients themselves.
We need a focussed drive to bring this vision into reality. For our part, we intend to
focus on issues which patients have told us are most important to them.
Actions
Government should:

implement the plans outlined in the Five Year Forward View on diversifying GP
and hospital services.
We see the NHS Five Year Forward View as a valid direction for the NHS, which
offers an achievable and reasoned approach to improving patient access and the
quality of services in line with our vision. In particular, we urge the next government
to support the development of Multispeciality Community Providers (MCP) and
Primary & Acute Care Systems (PACS) outlined in the View document, as a means
of addressing patient access to treatment. Careful consideration of the support
required for commissioners will be needed, to ensure these new models can be
effectively established and sustained.
NICE should:
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients

run a comprehensive process of consultation in future decisions around the drug
appraisal system with patients, carers and patient organisations.
NHS England and the Care Quality Commission should collaborate to:

review, specify and monitor adherence to core standards in how information on
waiting times should be recorded and reported by local NHS organisations.
Improving waiting times for treatments is clearly necessary given repeated breaches
of the NHS’ 18-week maximum wait from GP referral to treatment.xxviii The actions
above are essential to provide the environment in which waiting times can be
sustainably improved.
5. CONCLUSION
The Patients Association wants to work with the NHS at all levels. NHS staff are
supremely committed to providing the best care and treatment to patients. But as we
have detailed, often important issues can get lost along the way. We want to
celebrate where good care is provided, but also work in partnership with patients,
frontline and senior NHS staff to make a better NHS for us all. We all deserve a
system that is fit for patients, and fit for the 21st century.
6. CONTACT DETAILS
For more information about the work of the Patients Association, please contact us:
The Patients Association, PO Box 935, Harrow, Middlesex HA1 3YJ
T: 020 8423 9111 F: 020 8423 9119 E: helpline@patients-association.com
We also offer a helpline, which supports thousands of patients and relatives every
year, answering concerns and queries about any aspect of the Healthcare system.
This is a local rate number and if a phone provider charges, we are happy to return
calls. The Helpline both informs patients and gathers their views.
In addition, The Patients Association has several resources available on our website
www.patients-association.com - providing general advice, the latest health news,
reports, reviews and links to further information.
How to Contact the Helpline:
Our Helpline is open from 9:30am to 5:00pm Monday to Friday.
If you want to speak to someone on our Helpline, please call on 0845 608 4455.
If you would like to contact the Helpline via email, please email helpline@patientsassociation.com or use our online form on our website.
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients
i
NHS England (2014) NHS Five Year Forward View. Available from
http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/
ii Department of Health (2013) The NHS Constitution: The NHS belongs to us all. Available from
http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Rightsandpledges/NHSConstitution/Pages/Overview.aspx
iii Department of Health (2013) The NHS Constitution: The NHS belongs to us all, p.5. Available from
http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Rightsandpledges/NHSConstitution/Pages/Overview.aspx
iv NHS England (2013) CCG Outcomes Indicator Set 2014/15-at a glance, p.4. Available from
http://www.england.nhs.uk/ccg-ois/
v Please see Patients Association (2014) Why our NHS should listen and be human, p.11. Available
from http://www.patients-association.com/
vi Patients Association (2014) Why our NHS should listen and be human, p.5. Available from
http://www.patients-association.com/
vii Patients Association (2014) Why our NHS should listen and be human, p.7. Available from
http://www.patients-association.com/
viii See http://patients-association.com/Default.aspx?tabid=237
ix NHS England (2014) Overall patient experience scores 2014. Available from
http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/2014/09/18/overall-patient-experience-scores-2014-communitymental-health-survey/
x Department of Health (2013) The NHS Constitution: The NHS belongs to us all, p.4. Available from
http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Rightsandpledges/NHSConstitution/Pages/Overview.aspx
xi The Health Select Committee (2011) Inquiry into Complaints and Litigation: Volume 1, p.5.
Available from http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commonsselect/health-committee/news/11-06-28-clreoprt-substantive-/
xii The Patients Association (2014) Handling complaints with a human touch, p. 16. Available from
http://www.patients-association.com/
xiii Francis, R. (2013) Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry Available
from http://www.midstaffspublicinquiry.com/report
xiv Patients Association (2014) Why our NHS should listen and be human, p.4. Available from
http://www.patients-association.com/
xv Patients Association (2014) The ‘People’s’ Ombudsman: How it failed us, p.35. Available from
http://www.patients-association.com/
xvi Patients Association (2014) The ‘People’s’ Ombudsman: How it failed us, p.37. Available from
http://www.patients-association.com/
xvii Patients Association (2014) Why our NHS should listen and be human, p.4. Available from
http://www.patients-association.com/
xviii More detail on further improvements to be made to the PHSO can be found in Patients
Association (2014) The ‘People’s’ Ombudsman: How it failed us, p.38. Available from
http://www.patients-association.com/
xix See The Patients Association (2014) Handling complaints with a human touch, p. 16. Available
from http://www.patients-association.com/. The Charter is available here: http://www.patientsassociation.com/default.aspx?tabid=80&Id=2199
xx This would be in line with current proposals around an NHS Information Standard. See
http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/patients/accessibleinfo-2/
xxi For instance, looking at prostate cancer, see National Prostate Cancer Audit (2014) NCPA Annual
Report 2014. Available from http://www.npca.org.uk/news/
xxii The Patients Association (2014) Why are we still waiting?: Annual report on hospital waiting times,
p.1. Available from http://www.patients-association.com/
xxiii See National Audit Office (2014) NHS waiting times for elective care in England. Available from
http://www.nao.org.uk/report/nhs-waiting-times-elective-care-england-2/
xxiv Department of Health (2013) The NHS Constitution: The NHS belongs to us all, p.6. Available
from http://www.nhs.uk/choiceintheNHS/Rightsandpledges/NHSConstitution/Pages/Overview.aspx
xxv The Patients Association (2014) Primary Care: Access Denied?, p. 7. Available from
http://www.patients-association.com/
xxvi Care Quality Commission (2014), State of Care 2013/14, p.6. Available from
http://www.cqc.org.uk/content/state-care-201314
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients
xxvii
NHS England (2014) NHS Five Year Forward View. Available from
http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/
xxviii For example, see The Kings Fund (7.11.14) Will the 18-week waiting time target be met by the
end of the year? Available from http://www.kingsfund.org.uk/blog/2014/11/18-week-waiting-timestarget
THE PATIENTS ASSOCIATION STRATEGY
2015-2020
The purpose of the Patients Association is to campaign to ensure that individuals
receive safe and effective care when and where they need it. The right care and
treatment should be provided by competent, kind and compassionate health care
workers whose knowledge is up-to-date and who acknowledge the need of all
patients and their relatives to be treated with respect and dignity.
We will continue to maintain our reputation as a reliable, strong and independent
voice for patients and their carers. Our helpline will continue to be easily accessible
for individuals to obtain advice, support and guidance on health and social care
issues.
The Patients Association will not only campaign on behalf of patients to influence
health and social care policy but will also identify and disseminate best practice to
organisations and government bodies. We will do this through our work directly with
healthcare organisations and also through our publications.
Where appropriate and relevant the Patients Association will form strategic
partnerships with other organisations with a similar patient-focused ethos.
We will continue to strengthen our links at Ministerial level and with other
governmental bodies to ensure maximum impact and influence on health and social
care policy as well as its delivery to ensure the highest standards of patient care.
The Patients Association is a charity and as such is reliant on donations from the
public and organisations to undertake its work.
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Patients Association – An health and care system fit for patients