The MES Blog has moved

We've recently switched our blog across to a new address, so if you want to keep up to date with MES news and our blog posts then head over to our new site at membershipengagementservicesblog.wordpress.com  where you can access the same great content, in an even better format.

The true value of patient engagement

After 3 months abroad, my first week returned to my desk has been mostly spent reacquainting myself with what’s been going on in Healthcare. Being confident that no-one (except perhaps Andrew McClellan @HSJeditor) would be able to accurately digest  and regurgitate the entire sector in a week I settled for getting to grips with a selection of current themes.

After some exploratory googling, ‘patient engagement and its inherent value’ had piqued my interest. Nesta had recently suggested that the NHS in England could expect to save £4.4bn per annum in their recently published ‘Business Case for People Powered Health’.

For the past 6 years MES has been helping public and staff members of Foundation Trusts to influence their health providers. And now perhaps the other side of the coin is beginning to weigh-in with equal value, as we look to our clinicians to engage with patients to positively affect their behaviour.  

I learned from Forbes.com that pharmaceutical advertising in the states has been decreased for the 4^th consecutive year. However spend from Weight Watchers has been steadily increasing. Back on this side of the Atlantic it is common knowledge Doctors have regularly topped the list of most trusted professions since the yearly poll began in 1983.

Last year NHS Bedfordshire managed to lower the number of no-shows for appointments by 30% using 3 behaviour change techniques. At present it is easy to measure the financial cost of ‘Did not attends’, and therefore easy to justify spend on that mode of engagement. The good news is that it looks as though more value will be placed on this sort of activity.

Looks who's back...

 

If you work with us here at MES or follow us on Twitter or here on the blog, you may have noticed that Paul our Head of  Business Development has been a little quiet recently.  Well for the last three months he's been on sabbatical travelling the world.  During his travels he went skiing in France, and then travelled extensively through Central America visting places like Guatamala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama.  

 

 

Well he's now back, getting used to the British weather again (his plane landed at Heathrow in a snow storm!) and getting stuck in.  He'll be back writing on the blog as well, so expect to hear from him soon.

 

Postcard from an Election Observer

For the last seven days i've not been in the MES office, i've been in Macedonia observing their local elections as part of a OSCE Election Observation Mission.  The OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) is an international organisation made up of 57 member states who meet together to look at a number of issues relating to security cooperation in the region.  They also cover human rights and democracy and one of their most prominent activities is the observation of elections in their member states.

So it was through this process that I found myself on a flight to Skopje last week to join up with a group of observers from around the world (I believe at least twenty coutries were represented).  The other observers came from all walks of life, we had people who were part of international efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, others who were working on the humanitarian situation in Sudan, and we also had people who worked in local councils or central government departments here in the UK.  We even had a few people who'd stood for election themselves in the past.

How do I get the Foundation Trust Governors I want?

As somebody who has been immersed in the NHS Foundation Trust sector for the past 3 years, people often ask me in ‘FT’ circles (I suspect only half-joking), how to get the governors they want. More specifically, “how do I avoid having this particular awkward do-gooder with a first class degree in obstructive behaviour from the National Institute for Aggressive Soapboxing (NIAS), from making my life as Governor co-ordinator extremely difficult?” 

Hitting the target, but missing the point

Today the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt speaks at a health conference in Surrey on standards in the NHS, the dangers highlighted by the Francis report and of the risks of mediocrity or aiming simply not to “come last”.

In his speech he uses one phrase (originally coined by NHS Chief Executive David Nicholson) which particularly resonates with me, and regardless of political persuasion, I think is a pretty good sound bite.  He suggests “Hospitals are hitting targets but missing the point”.

Clinical performance and safety are naturally amongst the highest priorities within the NHS, and I think that is where the Minister’s sentiment may be directed.  However it can also be applied as a warning to the world of membership and engagement in the NHS.  MES was set up to help organisations develop and deliver meaningful engagement and that is a core part of our day-to-day ethos.  But does it feed through into the increasingly busy and stretched membership offices of NHS Foundation Trusts?  Is the focus on hitting targets and as such misses the point?  And what will new CCGs focus on given they too have a clear remit to engage with local health communities and the public.

Lent and the MES Pancakes

 

Yesterday was that lovely British tradition of pancake day and like most of the country the MES team enjoyed making pancakes last night. While there were a few disasters and plenty ended up in the bin, the end results were worth it.  Like 63% of the country (yes there is even polling data about pancakes!) most of the MES team favoured the traditional lemon and sugar combination, with Andreas and I being the only one to opt for savoury options, he went for bacon and cheese while I opted for a French galette stuffed with ham, egg and cheese.

 

Pancake day of course marks the traditional start of Lent with people opting to give something up for the forty days until Easter.  While here at MES we might have enjoyed the pancakes, we're apparently not as good at giving things up.  When I surveyed the team only Rob in our Membership Services Team  was giving something up - he's giving up Beer and Lager.  Other responses ranged from "I am actually reverse-lenting. I am re-starting things I gave up" to "giving up chocolate last year just made me cranky so I’m making the decision that is best for everyone by giving up nothing."

Top Tips for Recruitment

Previously we’ve shared with you our top tips for surviving the British weather when out doing recruitment work.  This week Amy in our recruitment team shares her top five tips for a better recruitment campaign.

As we look ahead to 2013 there is a clear aim at the forefront of NHS trusts agendas – to build a membership that is representative of the local community. In advance of submitting reports and plans to Monitor, NHS trusts are reviewing the representation of their membership.

Would you recommend us to your friends and family?

These days it’s quite common to be asked for feedback from companies whose services you’ve used, you might get an email from Amazon asking if you were happy with your last DVD delivery, or a restaurant might give you a feedback form asking about your meal.  Here at MES we do the same sending out feedback forms to all of our clients on a regular basis.  From April this year the NHS will be expected to do the same thing.  Back in May last year the Prime Minister announced that the so-called “Friends and Family” test would be rolled out across the NHS, with a minimum of 15% patients being asked whether they would recommend the hospital ward they’d visited, or the A&E they’d been treated in to their family and friends.

Braving the Winter Weather

After returning from toasty Australia 2 weeks ago (sadly I mean that literally following the recent bush fires in Tasmania) it is quite a shock to the system getting acclimatised to the brutal British weather. Amy and I lead the membership recruitment team  and spend much of the year travelling the length and breadth of the country, encouraging participation and gathering support from the British public for their local NHS Trust. As a result we are now veterans at braving all weather and delivering recruitment campaigns in the harshest of conditions. Here are our top tips when it comes to being prepared for all eventualities:

Resolutions for 2013

Greetings from MES for the new year to clients, friends, colleagues and followers of our blog.  We hope you all had a good break and are set up nicely for 2013.

Short, sweet and to the point this week.  Following on from our end of year ’12 Days ofChristMES’ message I thought I’d do a bit of crowd-sourcing and see what colleagues’ views were on New Year resolutions.

To say there was some resistance to this ancient tradition is putting it mildly.  There was a lot ‘there is no point’ or ‘I don’t agree with setting resolutions’ [a.k.a ‘my willpower is comical and so I will not set myself up for a guaranteed fall’].  The full uncensored version of one of these kind of comments was:

“I usually never make resolutions, because I am a pragmatic engineer who believes that the Gregorian calendar is just another invention that humans developed in order to organize time, and that there is in fact no such thing as a ‘New Year’. If you want to change something in your life, then get a grip and just do it. Don’t wait around for the new year."

Nice.

Anyway, this may of course be true but I have eeked out a top 10 for your delight (as you read on have the TOTP 1980s theme tune running through your mind, or if you need help, click here and have it playing in the background:

10      Travel more

9        To type the word 'constituencies' correctly on a more frequent basis

8        Stop smoking

7        Start using Twitter

6        Train harder

5        Start my voluntary work

4        Worry less

3        Maintain & grow a healthy adult relationship devoid of drama and selfishness

2        Improve my upper body strength [please could you be more specific MES-er? And if I catch you with any improved lower body strength you will be dealt with harshly and swiftly!]

And coming in a No. 1, winning the title for its total lack of commitment and its impressve vagueness....

 

1

“I may do some stuff, I may embark on some ventures, who knows.  I'd kind of like to start looking at property this year, but that's a nice casual idea, not hard-and-fast resolve.”

We’ll provide weekly progress reports throughout 2013 on each of them.

Actually we won't.  If you have any you’d like to share with us why not tweet us @MESSocial ?

Have a good week ahead everyone.