Changing Our Lives launched an innovative set of Quality of Health Principles for some of the most vulnerable members of the local population on 11th November, with the Chief Executive of the NHS for England, Sir David Nicholson.
The Quality of Health Prinicples were developed by people with learning disabilities, physical disabilities, people with visual and hearing impairments and people with mental health issues and older people, for use by local health and care services. The Principles set out the expectations of local people about what a good quality patient experience should be like from local health services.
Launching the Principles, Sir David Nicholson, Chief Executive of the NHS for England, said 'We need the patient to be at the centre of all we do and we must ensure every person has a high quality experience of our services. This means we have to understand and respond to the fact that each person has their own specific needs and expectations about their care.
'These principles set out how individuals from across the local community expect to be treated and involved in their care and I am sure local services will take these and adopt them into their every day work. I would like to thank Changing Our Lives and all of those people who helped to develop these common sense, practical principles, to drive improvement in the local NHS'.
Marking the launch of the Prinicples, Jayne, Chief Executive of Changing Our Lives, said 'It is fantastic that we have been able to bring together local people to define what a high quality patient experience is for them. I am proud of the work we have done together and delighted we have been able to share this with the NHS Chief Executive and Department of Health'.
'I woud also like to thank Sir David for a generous personal donation he has made to Changing Our Lives. We are a charitable organisation dependent on a range of different sources for our income. Personal donations such as this make a real difference to the work that we do, day in day out'.
The principles will be used as a basis for audits of local health services by Changing Our Lives, carried out by auditors with disabilities, older people and people with mental health needs. Auditors from Changing Our lives will also be visiting Sir David Nicholson and senior ministers in the Department of Health in January 2012 to look at the work in more detail and share the audit methodology with the Department of Health.
Areas covered in the Principles include: accessible communication, information, choice, admission, staying in hospital, discharge, appointments, treatment, the way professionals work with me, accessible environment, privacy and dignity, respect, medication and complaints.
Changing Our Lives