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The purpose of this paper is to examine the current state and utilisation of user evaluation consultation adopted by Wales Air Ambulance (WAA) within the policy context. It is intended to provide a baseline for further evaluative research in the field and to highlight existing practices and resources. Gaps in strategic planning and service delivery are identified, with local recommendations proposed.

Semi‐structured, in‐depth face‐to‐face interviews were conducted with ten participants drawn from a convenient sample representative of stakeholders including practitioners, fundraisers and operational staff. These groups represent primary actors involved in the delivery of services and policy implementation and also secondary actors involved in the delivery as users. Documentary analysis of WAA dispatch policy and protocols combined with secondary quantitative data of key performance indicators was undertaken.

In total, 80 per cent of the sample stated their satisfaction with WAA dispatch policy with no perceived need or benefit to further development of policy or local agreements. About 70 per cent of participants had received direct comments that were 100 per cent positive from primary users/patients. All organisations shared the same concerns regarding lack of appropriate present communication.

The research design was driven by practicalities of time‐scale and resources. Owing to these constraints, plus the legal and ethical requirements relating to the involvement of patients in research, primary users were not included in this study. Areas for future research are identified.

Recommendations being implemented by WAA include further engagement with primary users of the service in order to enhance standards.

This paper reports the first empirical research conducted with WAA and users of the service.

A growing literature reports the benefits and challenges of patient and public involvement (PPI) in research; nevertheless, understanding PPI in research design remains under-developed. The purpose of this paper is to report learning experiences from involving service users as research partners in two projects that developed and evaluated guidelines for good practice in this regard. The main objective was to evaluate these guidelines.

PPI research guidelines were developed through five workshops involving service users/patients, carers, health and social care professionals/managers and academics. Using a participatory qualitative approach, these guidelines were evaluated through mapping them against the two service user research partners’ experience within another project.

The guidelines were found to be fit for purpose, as they allowed problems to be easily identified and reassurance that required standards were being met. Both academic and service user research partners learned and gained relevant skills. Two service user research partners also found their daily living skills unexpectedly enhanced by project participation.

The PPI guidelines, the authors developed were produced by consensus involving several stakeholders. Service users involved as research partners in the project experienced unanticipated personal benefits.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of a narrative to redefine integrated care from the user's perspective, which is being promoted across England.

The content of the narrative for person-centred coordinated care, recently launched in England, is described. The need for the narrative is explained in the context of the failure of previous integrated care programmes to identify and deliver clear benefits to service users. The sources and stages of development of the narrative are described. The author considers its place in national policy, further content development and its potential to help those planning programmes of integration.

A clear consensus on the need to define integrated care from the service user perspective now exists in England, and a narrative now exists to fulfil this purpose which has been developed by service users, patient groups, care professionals and system leaders. It has radical potential to change service delivery but this will be subject to the degree of local adoption.

The paper is the first journal publication describing the narrative for person-centred coordinated care and creates a record of its developmental stages which will be of interest to system leaders, professionals and researchers in England and internationally.

Although there has been a commitment to develop a policy framework to support vulnerable adults at risk of abuse, there remains concern around its lack of use within National Health Service inpatient settings and mental health services in particular. A gap between policy and practice appears to have developed, which leaves inpatients vulnerable to inadequate responses to allegations of adult abuse. This article will provide a critical overview of the policy and practice issues that affect the use of adult protection procedures.

The purpose of this study is to explore the literature of healthcare service quality for identifying and analyzing the healthcare service quality models and dimensions and to present future research insights pertaining to the applications of these models and dimensions.

A literature review of healthcare service quality has been performed on 59 relevant studies after applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Google Scholar and Scopus are the primary sources to find the relevant documents. Search was limited to keywords of “service quality,” “healthcare,” “models” and “dimensions.”

The results revealed that different models and dimensions have been evolved and developed after SERVQUAL in healthcare service quality literature. There is still a need to develop new models, add new contextual dimensions and items in existing models on different aspects of healthcare services. There is also a need to incorporate the perspective of service providers as respondents. Moreover, healthcare service quality models can be devolved or narrowed down at department and individual levels.

This study presents valuable research insights for the researchers and practitioners in ways that healthcare service quality models and dimensions can be developed, modified and tested further in different research contexts and settings. Besides, the literature on healthcare services can be enhanced and enriched.

The purpose of this paper is to raise issues around the involvement of clinicians relevant to current policies for integrated care by reviewing a previous policy to integrate assessments.

This paper is a review of data from a survey of specialist clinicians' involvement in the single assessment process for older people.

The paper finds that clinician involvement was limited, with assessments not changing to a discernable degree and little involvement of older people. Changes to assessment were predominantly related to paperwork. However, the use of standardised tools by clinicians did increase. The use of shared record systems with social services was significantly associated with involvement.

Clinicians have previously not been engaged in policies around integrated assessments. Factors that can help engagement include development of a shared vision, drawing on the traditions of particular groups of clinicians in informing integrated assessment policies, and appropriate IT systems to promote information sharing. Factors hindering engagement include national policy implementation, viewed as inimical to clinical practice and low involvement by service users/patients.

Reviewing such previously implemented polices around integration, particularly at the assessment stage, offers lessons to learn in terms of the factors that may help or hinder the achievement of integrated practice, particularly regarding current policies around clinical leadership.

By bringing together the management of the local authority social services department and the new primary care trust, an alternative to the ‘care trust’ model has been tested in this London borough. A senior manager here describes the background, and outlines both the achievements and the difficult issues that remain.

The National Health Service (NHS) has many different kinds of professionals and managers working underneath its large umbrella: non‐clinical managers administer the work of health‐care professionals, who in turn are concerned with the management of patients’ treatments. Delivery of health‐care services involves the managers and professionals working together to achieve a service that is good for, and acceptable to, patients. A change in the philosophy of the NHS is indicated by the growing acceptance, by both managers and professionals, of the necessity to elicit the views of patients (i.e. the expectations and perceptions of service users) and to incorporate these views into the planning and implementation of services. Discusses one such attempt to elicit the perceptions of service users, and reports on the preliminary findings of a patient‐centred audit which has been undertaken in Southend Community Care Services NHS Trust. Discusses the effects that the audit has had on the chiropody services in Southend, for both non‐clinical managers and health‐care professionals, in order to highlight the usefulness of the approach.

This article highlights challenges faced by researchers in the Department of Health's programme of research on Modernising Adult Social Care in trying to assess the impact of reform on service users. It explores the changing relationship between service users and service providers, focusing in particular on the author's own research as part of an ESRC/AHRB‐funded project on Creating citizenconsumers: changing relationships and identifications. Rather than a one‐way relationship between policy reform and user impact, the article highlights the importance of bringing users into the research process itself.

The purpose of this paper is to explore patients’ experiences of intentional mental health peer support (PS).

Seven in-depth interviews were carried out by an independent researcher with individual inpatients who volunteered via a PS worker following leaflet and poster distribution explaining the research on the two wards. Each recorded interview of 13 questions was transcribed verbatim by the researcher and analysis identified common themes across the interviews.

An overarching theme of communication with patients was identified together with six main themes: person centredness, practical support, building connections, emotional support, modelling hope and recovery interventions. There were no negative comments expressed by interviewees.

Small scale qualitative research allows in-depth exploration of experiences which is valuable in informing the further development of PS.

There are very few published reports of inpatient experiences of PS in inpatient settings.