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.

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.

NHS Alliance

MES together with some of our colleagues at ERS hosted a workshop earlier today at the NHS Alliance conference.  Paul, together with Luke at ERS ran a session on Accountability, Engagement & Governance in the NHS.  We were recording the session so if you weren't able to make it to the actual event you can see the full discussion.



Video streaming by Ustream

NHS Membership Engagement Network

Today MES, together with Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, has been hosting the first ever meeting of the NHS Membership Engagement Network in the North West.  The meeting brought together NHS staff from all over the region to share best practice on engaging members, running consultations and governor engagement.

There's been plenty of lively discussion, and lots of great ideas.  If you're on Twitter you can have a look at all the day's events by following the #nhsnw hashtag

MES Strategy Day - Part 2

Last week the MES team had its annual strategy day.  It was a chance to get the team out of the office, to provide a platform for all to have a say about what changes are needed and what our focus should be in the coming year. It was also about spending some time with each other without phones going, emails buzzing (do emails buzz?) or managers hassling!

So my core topics this year were QUALITY and EDUCATION. 

FTN Conference Round Up

Last week members of MES and our parent company Electoral Reform Services travelled up to Liverpool to exhibit at the Foundation Trust Network Annual Conference and Exhibition.

The conference itself saw the introduction of Chris Hopson as new chief executive of the FTN and everyone at MES would like to take this opportunity to say a big welcome.
Conferences are usually a great time to spend bit of time away from the office with colleagues, getting a bit of perspective and catching up on the latest news.

One of the big take home messages for us this year was around the remaining provider Trusts and what the future holds for them. We had heard suggestion at the conference that only as few as 35-40 of the remaining aspirant Trusts can expect to be authorised. With the recent anouncement that the CCG deemed Cambridgeshire Community Services as unviable, it appears that crunch time for providers may be here at last.

At MES we have always asked the question 'how does this affect the member, the public and the patient?'. With the onset of more murders and executions (mergers and acquisitions) what happens to the patient's relationship with the outgoing Trust? Communication and involvement in the process can often lead to an even higher level of engagement, and in some intances can even halt the mereger altogther. When there is strong public connection to an organisation, it's a lot harder to simply remove it.

When not debating NHS engagement matters, MES and ERS staff had time to explore a little of Liverpool, grab some great asian food at Tokyou and even cook breakfast together. Getting into the swing of all things Merseyside we even found time to create some alternative Beatles songs - 'while my FT database gently beeps' being a personal favourite!

Foundation Trusts: Their contribution to the engagement debate… and science!

Next week is the annual NHS Foundation Trust Network conference, now in its 5^th year. This year it’s a 2-day event – evidence of the sector’s growth and development, and of course the huge change going on in the NHS right now. As ever, MES and its parent company ERS will be there chatting to clients, putting our feelers out and keeping our ears to the ground.

In advance of that, today we’re launching our publication about the sector’s impact on engagement.  In 2012, it is difficult to get through the day without seeing or hearing a news story, a government initiative being launched or a campaign commencing that talks about the importance to engage with us all.  We should all be engaging – being consulted, taking part, being listened to, no decision made about us without us and so on.

CCG Practice Team Engagement – Where to Begin?

Wave 1 Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs)  are on the cusp of authorisation. However this is not the end, this is not even the end of the beginning!

Leading up to this momentous occasion, CCGs have not been sitting idly around. There has been a charge to ensure that GP’s, Nurses, Practice Managers and Receptionists are on-board and know how to contribute.

In our work alongside emerging CCGs, so far, the biggest challenge has been simply to get through to people. In the run up to authorisation there is a daily typhoon of emails, letters, bulletins and more emails, and not a lifejacket in sight!

Then there is the daily business of running a practice. We have found that practice teams are overwhelmed by data and deadline, trying to speak to them about something which is beyond a ‘must do’ is very hard, but not impossible. Our aim has been to frame involvement in commissioning in a way that doesn’t demand more time. Sounds simple when written down, in reality this is quite a tough nut to crack.

Engagement in the Health Sector

This week’s blog takes a look at something very dear to our hearts at MES, public and patient engagement in the NHS.

As we draw into the hopefully anticipated ‘indian summer’ of 2012 I have been reflecting upon the people we’ve met, the conferences attended and the clients we have worked alongside so far this year.
 

Following the assent of the Health and Social Care Bill in March the precedent for patient and public involvement has never been greater. What’s more it has been set out as a whole domain (2) for Clinical Commissioning Groups to get to grips with. But without the rigid measures for engagement that are laid out for Foundation Trusts to guide them, many CCGS are wondering what effective engagement actually feels like.

The Engagement Calendar

-->

The blog is a day late this week.  Sorry to all the many readers who were left with nothing to do last night.  Its unacceptable and will not happen again.

Unless of course I find a suitable excuse – which this week was because I managed to get to the Paralympics at the stadium on Friday morning! Yeeeay!  It was great and all the things I read about it being inspirational, moving, fantastic for ‘normalising’ disability… its all true.  Thanks to my 10 year old for winning the tickets.

The Javelin throwers warming up:  they broke the WR 3 times!

Introducing the MES Blog

Today we're very excited to be launching our new blog with this grand inaugural message.  WELCOME!

We started tweeting this week too.  Social media is about to play a big part in our work here at Membership Engagement Services.  But first....

What is MES?  We're essentially a communications company with a particular focus on membership organisations.  We help our clients to link up and communicate better with their members, stakeholders, staff and local communities.  Lots of our clients are NHS Trusts but we work for other membership organisations too - trade unions, associations, institutes and corporate bodies.  We help with strategy, advice, and practical project delivery too; I never had much time for consultancies that offer the general advice, some of it a little obvious at that, without the tangible delivery too.

You can read our company philosophy here.

We're a subsidiary company of Electoral Reform Services - their focus being the impartial, expert and independent management of elections and ballots.

And what of this blog?  It will be a commentary, a resource and perhaps even a vaguely entertaining read about engagement.  We see the word bandied around willy nilly, organisations are encouraged to engage with us, Parliamentary Acts are passed that refer to public engagement, politicians speak of localism, community power and the big society ... although that particular phrase has quietened down somewhat this past 12 months or so.  And of course we have the word in our company name.

And now?  We'll be starting weekly for now.  More of the MES team will be contributing as time goes on.

So long for now.