Give patients a greater role in their own treatment

Our verdict

NHS England has recognised that:

“supporting patients to be actively involved in their own care, treatment and support can improve outcomes and experience for patients…”

The Next Steps On The Five Year Forward View, published in March 2017, supported a three-pronged approach for patient involvement based around:

• Supporting self-management/self-care
• Enabling people to make informed health decisions
• Creating the conditions for person-centred care

This policy is a promise to go further and give patients “a greater role in their own treatment”.

The NHS Long Term Plan, published in January 2019, sets out a ten-year strategic plan and includes various initiatives which should contribute to fulfilment of this pledge.

Chapter 1 sets out a new model for the NHS, highlighting that “people will get more control over their own health and more personalised care when they need it”.

In Chapter 5, “Digitally Enabled Care”, a strategy is outlined to create “straightforward digital access to NHS services, and help patients and their carers manage their health”, whilst embracing developments in digital technologies. It points to key areas where the NHS will empower people, such as the NHS App which will:

“provide citizens with access to NHS 111 online, their GP record, the ability to book appointments, update data sharing preferences and register for organ donation, all from their computer or smart phone.”

Given that the government has committed to support the implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan, we’re marking this as ‘in progress’. To see if we can move it to ‘done’, we’ll keep tracking the roll-out of various initiatives, so follow this policy to stay up to date.

Treat yourself to the details!

• NHS App – NHS Digital
• NHS Long Term Plan – NHS
• NHS Choice Framework – Gov.uk
• Involving people in their own care – NHS England
• NHS 111 – NHS