Chris Graham

Picker responds to the Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) plan 2025/26 We know the public are deeply concerned about access to urgent and emergency care, so this plan is a welcome step forward.

📢 Today the Department of Health and Social Care and @england.nhs.uk published the Urgent and Emergency Care Plan 2025/26.

📰 Our chief executive, @chrisgrahamuk.bsky.social, responded to the plan's publication - read our full comment: picker.org/research_ins...

#NHS #UEC #PersonCentredCare

@pickereurope.bsky.social
@patientsafetylearning.org
@hcuknews.bsky.social
@deliriumkrish.bsky.social
@helenh49.bsky.social

#PatientExperience #PatientSafety #Delirium #ICUDelirium

Why are people dissatisfied with the NHS - and what can be done about it?

An excellent article from @ollipotter.bsky.social at @pickereurope.bsky.social looks at the evidence from the British Social Attitudes Survey and NHS Patient Survey Programme. Well worth a read.

#patientexperience #NHS

Remember when PriceWaterhouse Coopers spent £75m on rebranding its consulting arm as Monday, then sold it to IBM who immediately dropped the name?

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2163...

"This is the third consecutive year in which public satisfaction with the NHS reached a new record low."

To restore public confidence, the health service must reduce the fear and harm associated with long waits, writes @chrisgrahamuk.bsky.social
www.bmj.com/content/389/...

💡New findings from the 2024 #CommunityMentalHealthSurvey reveal ongoing struggles in accessing care.

🟣 33% waited over 3 months for treatment, worsening their mental health.
🔵 Only 40% of people felt they got the help they needed during a crisis.

[1/2]

Patient-reported harm from NHS treatment or care, or the lack of access to care: a cross-sectional survey of general population prevalence, impact and responses Objectives The aim of this article is to provide an estimate of the proportion of the general public reporting healthcare-related harm in Great Britain, its location, impact, responses post-harm and d...

Colleagues & I have a new paper in @bmj.com Q&S showing:

👉 9.7% of British adults reported harm from NHS care (6.2%) or lack of access to care (3.5%) in last 3 years
👉 Women & lower social grades suffer more severe harm
👉 Only 17% complain

Read for free at:
qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/earl... 👀

Naturally I 100% agree that patient experience should be a high priority in the 10 year plan.

But as well as committing to reducing waits, the plan should aim to improve waits - eg through better communication, information for self-management, and peer support.

picker.org/research_ins...

Public satisfaction with the NHS has dropped to a new low.

But our policy director @laylamccay.bsky.social told LBC that an important part of the upcoming 10 Year Plan will be looking at improving patient experience and "how people can access the health service when they need it".

Public Satisfaction With The NHS And Social Care In 2024 | BSA | The King's Fund This report explores public satisfaction with the NHS and social care in 2024. Just 1 in 5 people in 2024 said they were satisfied with the NHS. This is the lowest level of satisfaction recorded since...

There's lots more to explore in the excellent summary and full report at www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-... - full credit to @thekingsfund.bsky.social & @nuffieldtrust.bsky.social for this insightful, must-read analysis.

🧵8/8

There are some really interesting new questions in this year's edition. One that stands out is around communication - only 50% agree that the NHS "does a good job at communicating with patients about
things like appointments and test results".

🧵7/8

A chart from The King's Fund and Nuffield Trust, which shows that voters of different political parties have different views on whether the principles of the NHS still apply today. Reform voters, specifically, are much less likely to think that the NHS should "primarily be funded through taxes" and that it "should be available to everyone".

I was sad to see an 11% point drop in the proportion who 'definitely' agree that "the NHS should be available to everyone" - down from 67% to 56%. Attitudes to this issue vary by people's political allegiances.

🧵6/8

The survey no longer asks for the reasons for dissatisfaction - but the issues that people are most dissatisfied with are around waiting times and staffing levels.

Public views of staffing levels are, in my opinion, likely to be bound up with experiences of waiting.

🧵5/8

Levels of dissatisfaction vary across services, with the steepest rise in A&E.

🦷 Dentistry: 55% dissatisfied, a 7% pt increase
🚑 A&E depts: 52% dissatisfied, a 15% pt increase
🩺 GP services: 49% dissatisfied, an 8% pt increase
🏥 In/outpatient hospital services: 28% dissatisfied (new)

🧵4/8

Comments from the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting, at the Labour Party Conference on 25th September 2024 - around the time this survey was conducted. He said: "Millions are stuck on waiting lists... ambulances don't arrive on time... you can't see your GP... The NHS is broken but not beaten, and together we will turn it around."

How to interpret that decline? Data was collected in Sept/October 2024 - early days for the new Govt, and SoS's message was that "the NHS is broken" (eg see image).

It's no surprise that people are dissatistifed - but it reminds us of the urgent need for improvement to restore confidence.

🧵3/8

A chart from The King's Fund showing trends in overall public satisfaction with the NHS from 1983 to 2024. Dissatisfaction is at a record high, and satisfaction is at a record low.

Overall satisfaction with the health service has continued to nosedive. Pre-pandemic, 60% of people were 'very'/'quite' satisfied with "the way the NHS runs": it's now 21%.

If there's a positive, the rate of decline has slowed: 'only' a 3% drop this year. But dissatisfaction has risen 7% pts.

🧵2/8

2024 BSA Survey data on public satisfaction with the NHS is out today via @thekingsfund.bsky.social & @nuffieldtrust.bsky.social. Results show:

‼️Record dissatisfaction with the NHS
‼️Widespread concern around waiting times
‼️Steepest declines around A&E
‼️72% don't think the NHS has enough staff

🧵1/8

I'm very excited about this - and honoured that @pointofcarefdn.bsky.social have trusted us @pickereurope.bsky.social with this important, high impact programme.

HSJ Podcast: The ups and downs of the NHS Staff Survey This week we take a closer look at the trends in this year's NHS Staff Survey, published yesterday.

The latest HSJ Health Check Podcast is now live!

Chris Graham, Chief Executive of Picker, joins the discussion to share insights from the NHS staff survey, explore key findings and outline what they mean for the healthcare workforce.

🎧 Listen here 👉 bit.ly/3Fv7loF

#NHS #NHSStaffSurvey #Podcast

I'm obviously biased but this is a fantastic event and well worth entering - it's a wonderful opportunity for teams to be recognised for their work and every year we see incredible, inspiring, examples of best practice.

Please do share!

#PatientExperience #PersonCentredCare #QualityImprovement

Navigating the healthcare system as a university student: My personal experience A university student shares his frustrations of navigating the healthcare system away from home

"As a young and intelligent individual, I found navigating the healthcare system challenging. I can only imagine how overwhelming it must be for older adults, those with additional needs or those less familiar with the process." www.pslhub.org/learn/improv... #patientsafety

Making patient feedback more inclusive: a new way to improve care for all A new peer-reviewed paper by Picker provides an approach to understanding and tackling under-representation in patient experience research.

Why are some people underrepresented in patient experience research - and what can we do about it?

Our (@pickereurope.bsky.social) new paper describes five key barriers to representation - and offers suggestions on reducing these.

Full, free paper at 👉 bit.ly/PatientFeedb... 📖

#PatientExperience

Why are some groups underrepresented in patient experience measures? There's more to it than non-response.

Really happy to have this paper published. I'm biased but understanding & improving representation strikes me as crucially important to make the most of patient feedback.

#PatientExperience

A valuable report from @healthwatchengland.bsky.social today, showing that many people experience poor NHS care but don't complain.

We need a far simpler, better integrated system for complaints across the NHS - at present it is far too difficult for patients to know how to complain and to whom.

56% of people told us they had experienced poor care but took no action.

Making a complaint is a right enshrined in the NHS Constitution.

Yet, our new research shows people have low confidence in the NHS complaints system and struggle to navigate it. This prevents them from complaining if they get poor care.

Find out more www.healthwatch.co.uk/news/2025-01...

I exited the year in a post of a trio of newer papers so heres a few of the older ones...

We used maps to help tailor services to local needs in a quality improvement project that boosted therapy referrals for psychology

Https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fds071

📢This morning, the government announced the Elective Reform Plan, which outlines a strategy to reduce the backlog of patients currently waiting for assessment and treatment. Read our response here: bit.ly/ElectiveReformPlan

#NHS #PatientExperience #PickerEurope #PersonCentredCare

Why probability probably doesn’t exist (but it is useful to act like it does) All of statistics and much of science depends on probability — an astonishing achievement, considering no one’s really sure what it is.

All of statistics and much of science depends on probability — an astonishing achievement, considering no one’s really sure what it is. 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Where did 2024 go? I'm sure it's only been a couple of months since I was writing about my highlights of 2023, but here we are...

📢Yesterday, the Government provided an update on its #PlanforChange, which includes a commitment to “Build an #NHS Fit for the Future”.

@chrisgrahamuk.bsky.social, Group Chief Executive Officer at @pickereurope.bsky.social, has responded to the plan.👇