Organising Care Around Patients: Stories from the Frontline of the NHS

(Hardback)

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The NHS has long declared its commitment to 'patient-centred care' but a large gap remains between the fine words and the reality. This book offers new insights by listening closely to those with frontline experience of being cared for. It draws on the power of story-telling increasingly valued as a tool for learning and research to help healthcare professionals, managers and politicians to understand how to deliver care that is better organised around patients.

It provides accounts from patients and carers about what its like when services get it right and wrong, from birth up to the end of life. Each testimony provides powerful messages which are hard to ignore. The cumulative presentation suggests a set of key principles to inform a redrawing of the system.

Reviews

'This timely and important book does exactly what it says in its title it places patients at the centre, enables their stories to be told and heard, and explores what these insights mean for the organisation of health and care services. That this book is so necessary and hard-hitting underlines how much more remains to be done to bring about person-centred care.'
Judith Smith, Director of Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham

'I have a real fear that despite the best intentions of most health professionals, pressures in the NHS are resulting in care which is increasingly more transactional and less personalised. This fear keeps me awake at night because a health system which doesnt have patients at its heart wont work. This book challenges and inspires the reader to get us to a better place.'
Martin Marshall, Chair Royal College of General Practitioners and GP in Newham, East London

'There is no health system on the planet that can maintain its sustainability without patients as partners and communities as carers. This book is a timely reminder of this truth.'
Mark Britnell, Vice-Chair and Global Health Expert, KPMG UK

'This book is a timely reminder of the gap between what is convenient for an organization, on one hand, and patient and family values, rights, and autonomy on the other. The text touches on further topics, such as funding, staff shortages, and future trends. The book is a call to action for health care providers to organize their attitudes, practices, and behaviors around patient-centered care.'
Choice
Reprinted with permission from Choice Reviews. All rights reserved. Copyright by the American Library Association.

Author Bio

Naomi Chambers is Professor of Healthcare Management at the University of Manchester

Jeremy Taylor is Director for Public Voice at the National Institute for Health Research