What is The People’s Panel?
The People’s Panel brought together 100 people to consider the health and care challenges being faced by the British public.
The Panel shared their personal experiences of health and care, heard the stories of others and got to call on experts to answer any burning questions. The Panel was then tasked with prioritising the issues raised.
What came out of the Panel?
At the end of this first phase of the process, the Panel concluded that two issues should be looked at first:
- How to train, recruit and keep staff needed
- Improving poor communications between NHS and patients
What happens next?
These two issues have been taken forward to the third stage of our process.
In this phase of the project we will bring together people most affected by these issues – including the public, staff and decision-makers – to develop practical solutions together.
The Panel identified seven priority issues. They worked through each one, looking at why it was important, who it affected and what the future would look like if it was fixed.
Workforce – The health and social care systems are failing to recruit, train and retain sufficient staff to meet current and future demands.
Fragmented system – Poor communication between different services, departments and patients leads to delays and gaps in receiving important care. This causes confusion, distress and disappointment for patients, especially for those with complex conditions and care needs.
Lengthy process and waiting times – The referral process is disconnected and inefficient. It is outdated and has not evolved with the needs of people or advances in technology. There is poor information flow between primary and specialist care. And poor communication between health and care services and the people using them.
Integrated health and social care – Service users are not always signposted in a timely manner to the appropriate health and social care services that best meet their needs. Delays in intervention can adversely impact patient outcomes.
Mental health services – Experience suggests there is a lack of understanding, awareness, and education about mental health.
Holistic health and care – The system doesn’t require professionals to look at the bigger picture, which results in treating individual conditions and not the whole person.
Prevention and early intervention – People can find it challenging to make an informed choice which leads to lifestyle issues creating pressures on the NHS.
Across their health and care sessions, we caught up with members of the Panel to find out how they found the process… find out more
Find out how The People’s Panel fits into Engage Britain’s five-step process to create lasting change. How will we get there?… find out more
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Read John Hall’s exclusive digest, reflecting on the health and care challenges identified by The People’s Panel…. read more
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