I’ve been reflecting recently on what we mean by personal care. NHS England’s Head of Digital writes of the NHS Long Term Plan this week:
”… sets out an exciting ambition for care that is more personalised and tailored around the needs of the individual, enabling people to have more autonomy over their health and wellbeing. It describes a future where people will be empowered to participate in their care using digital services that truly meet their needs, help them live better with long term conditions, target prevention and offer them a much more personalised experience.”
No doubt the intention is good but I’m concerned that what we design and build should be grounded in the everyday needs of patients, and I don’t hear them using that language.
We get over 500 patient feedbacks each week and one of the strongest themes is thanks to a doctor or nurse they name.
What we hear from patients if I could summarise in a sentence is: “I need help with my medical problem from someone I trust.”
For patients, personal care faces outwards, they are dealing with another person they know and trust.
“Personalised” seems to me inward facing, a digital experience where the technology is configured with my preferences and perhaps my medical history. It might be clever and it might have value, but I’m not hearing from patients that they want autonomy, especially those who are most in need of help.
“Personal” brings us back to that question of continuity of care. It’s well documented to have fallen in recent years, but we also know that this is not inevitable.
Some I think seem to view continuity as a kind of spiritual nirvana, or a lost golden age where the family doctor had all the time in the world for everyone who dropped in to see them.
Back on earth, right now, it’s a simple operational problem of “Can a patient needing help choose a named clinician?”
We’ve always made this possible with a validated list shown to patients, of all clinicians working today, and around 20 – 30% of patients make a choice. But we’ve just introduced three improvements to make it easier both for patients and practices, since ease of use is the biggest driver of any change.
While the patient may only choose someone working today, they can now look a week ahead to see when their chosen GP is available (they always have capacity same day)
With our One Click Assign feature, a GP if named is starred so unless there’s a reason not to, the assigner will, with one click, put that patient request in front of said GP.
Any patient can have a “Usual GP” set, if the practice wishes, so even if the patient doesn’t choose, the assigner can see that GP tagged with an icon in the One Click Assign list.
The outcome is that we are hearing every day from GPs and patients who feel empowered.
There’s a growing conversation on Twitter (follow @askmygp) from all sides, do take a look.
Some years ago I heard former RCS President Clare Marx speak and I have often quoted her words, “We must make the digital, personal”. So true, and yet I wonder whether she has been heeded?
Perhaps to make this work we should look at it the other way round.
“We need to enable the personal with digital”
That’s the task for NHS England’s Head of Personal.
Regards
Harry Longman
PS Data geeks, this is fascinating. We’ve just published a study showing the age-specific adoption of online consultations. Covering 10 practices in the period 1/1/19 to 8/2/19, n = 37,634 requests, it shows that for young adults 70% are now seeking help online rather than by telephone, and even up to 65 it’s over half. These are normal regular local digital first practices.
Personal or personalised?
I’ve been reflecting recently on what we mean by personal care. NHS England’s Head of Digital writes of the NHS Long Term Plan this week:
”… sets out an exciting ambition for care that is more personalised and tailored around the needs of the individual, enabling people to have more autonomy over their health and wellbeing. It describes a future where people will be empowered to participate in their care using digital services that truly meet their needs, help them live better with long term conditions, target prevention and offer them a much more personalised experience.”
No doubt the intention is good but I’m concerned that what we design and build should be grounded in the everyday needs of patients, and I don’t hear them using that language.
We get over 500 patient feedbacks each week and one of the strongest themes is thanks to a doctor or nurse they name.
What we hear from patients if I could summarise in a sentence is: “I need help with my medical problem from someone I trust.”
For patients, personal care faces outwards, they are dealing with another person they know and trust.
“Personalised” seems to me inward facing, a digital experience where the technology is configured with my preferences and perhaps my medical history. It might be clever and it might have value, but I’m not hearing from patients that they want autonomy, especially those who are most in need of help.
“Personal” brings us back to that question of continuity of care. It’s well documented to have fallen in recent years, but we also know that this is not inevitable.
Some I think seem to view continuity as a kind of spiritual nirvana, or a lost golden age where the family doctor had all the time in the world for everyone who dropped in to see them.
Back on earth, right now, it’s a simple operational problem of “Can a patient needing help choose a named clinician?”
We’ve always made this possible with a validated list shown to patients, of all clinicians working today, and around 20 – 30% of patients make a choice. But we’ve just introduced three improvements to make it easier both for patients and practices, since ease of use is the biggest driver of any change.
The outcome is that we are hearing every day from GPs and patients who feel empowered.
There’s a growing conversation on Twitter (follow @askmygp) from all sides, do take a look.
Dr Lis Flett writes “Accessibility, Continuity. Responsiveness. Compassion. From your own GP. That is what modern UK primary care needs.”
Some years ago I heard former RCS President Clare Marx speak and I have often quoted her words, “We must make the digital, personal”. So true, and yet I wonder whether she has been heeded?
Perhaps to make this work we should look at it the other way round.
“We need to enable the personal with digital”
That’s the task for NHS England’s Head of Personal.
Regards
Harry Longman
PS Data geeks, this is fascinating. We’ve just published a study showing the age-specific adoption of online consultations. Covering 10 practices in the period 1/1/19 to 8/2/19, n = 37,634 requests, it shows that for young adults 70% are now seeking help online rather than by telephone, and even up to 65 it’s over half. These are normal regular local digital first practices.
Chart and notes here: Age specific adoption of online consultations.
PPS 4 new practices and another 30,000 patients covered last week, with Weston-super-Mare reaching half way in its project for the whole town.
What you can read next
Dear Mrs May
Encouraging, Dangerous, Lackadaisical
For the few, not the many