Sue Barnitt outlines the aims and ambitions of Nottingham CityCare’s Patient Engagement and Experience Strategy – setting out how we will work with our diverse communities to design and deliver high-quality, effective and accessible care for all
Patients, families, and carers who are actively involved in their own care enjoy better clinical outcomes. They engage more effectively with clinicians, resulting in better- managed care, better outcomes, and a better experience for all.
A positive experience will mean different things to different people. Starting with high- quality, effective clinical care, a patient might then go on to ask:
- Am I being treated with respect and courtesy?
- Do I have a voice in my care planning?
- Do I get proper explanations and are they helping me to understand my treatment?
- Is my care co-ordinated? Are teams talking to each other so I have a seamless journey?
- Did I have to wait – to get an appointment, to be discharged, when I called for help? Did staff explain any delays?
We are fully committed to improving patient experience, which means we need to work harder to engage with patients about all aspects of their treatment – ensuring they have a say in identifying their needs and planning how care should be delivered.
The launch of our Patient Experience and Engagement Strategy demonstrates our commitment to putting patients at the centre of service evaluation and improvement.
We have developed the strategy alongside our Health Inequalities Framework, recognising that equality, diversity and inclusion. including tackling population health inequalities must be integral to our wider culture and values.
The Health Inequalities Framework will be officially launched at our Health Inequalities Conference on November 28.
The strategy is a commitment to taking every opportunity to hear from our patients, carers, and loved ones.
We will create a culture of partnership, joint decision making and collaboration where patients can expect to:
- Be treated as experts about themselves and their own experience of health and care services
- Be asked to take part in patient engagement activities
- Have their views considered in decisions about their care and the planning of future services.
Patients, carers, and local voluntary groups have told us what is important to them, helping us to develop four aims:
We will:
- Engage with people from diverse communities
- Improve accessibility for patients with diverse needs
- Expand our pool of patient representatives and volunteers to better reflect our communities
- Develop a more rigorous approach to analysing reports from engagement activities, formal complaints, concerns, and patient experience data.
How will we deliver?
We will:
Look to experts by experience – those who have used our services and had direct experience of the care we deliver.
Work with community groups and existing networks to help us reach further into the communities we serve – increasing engagement and understanding of our diverse population.
Refresh and reinvigorate our Patient Experience Group, providing members with training and resources to represent and promote input directly from different communities.
Develop better ways to collect feedback and become better at sharing and celebrating their work and how it is improving the care we deliver.
Ultimately, we will strengthen existing partnerships and develop new ones to help us deliver services that have been designed with direct input from across the communities, meeting their needs and providing care that is accessible to all.
Do you want to help shape the future of Nottingham CityCare?
Nottingham CityCare is the biggest provider of NHS community health services in the city, dedicated to improving long-term health and wellbeing of people in the diverse and vibrant communities we serve. We deliver a range of healthcare services tailored to the needs of local people, caring for people in their homes and in the community as well as providing public health services for the city.
We are holding a special event, giving you the chance to shape the care we deliver as part of our patient experience network, or as a volunteer, supporting our services across Nottingham.
5 November, 2024, 9.30am to 1pm
The Indian Community Centre, Nottingham, NG5 1QZ.
Everyone is welcome and we would particularly like to see you if you are:
- An existing patient representative
- A representative from your local community or a community-based group
- Keen to find out more about our services and the opportunities there are to support them.
Date published: 30 October 2024
