Introducing 'NHS Voices' and how to have your say.
The thinking of health care professionals on the future of the NHS has been gathered towards the conference through three forms of consultation led by Dr Duncan Nicholson or Cambridge Health Futures. Questionnaire results are expected to shift as returns grow each week in the countdown to the conference:
Around 500 professionals throughout the UK have been participating in a staged series of written questionnaires, with each round developed from responses to the last. Initially, people were asked to list the characteristics of their ideal health service and to look at the next fifty years. Later questionnaires asked them to prioritise their list of ideals.
Early results show that the top three ideal characteristics are:
- Emergency Care available 24 hours a day
- Free at the point of delivery
- No difference in treatment dependent on race, culture or creed
The Delphi round two questionnaires have been sent to everyone coming to the conference - around 3000 people. Early results identify some issues rated as important and that respondents believe the NHS delivers:
- Emergency Care available 24 hours a day
- Driven by community rather than commercial values
- All staff well trained for their role in service training
Respondents also identify key issues where the NHS is lacking:
- Equivalent facilities across the country
- Emphasises individual responsibility for health
- Encouraging evidence-based medicine
- Well integrated with social and voluntary sectors
300 health professionals around the world have also been invited to respond to Delphi round two questionnaires. They have also been asked to suggest aspects of the NHS they would like to see replicated in their own country and which they would not, plus to contribute their view on whether the NHS is more cost effective that the health care of their own country. Those returns will be revealed at the conference.
Please take the time to fill in a questionnaire on this strand of the
Debate for Our Future.
You can also register your overall personal view of what you think the NHS needs to do to ensure it thrives.
Read the full text before joining in the debate
Please contact us if you have any queries or would like further
information: future.issues.nhs@dial.pipex.com
Summary
