Recent posts on the Public Involvement Blog

The Invisible Hand    (May 21, 2013)

These huge hands have become very fashionable – seen most recently by me in Birmingham New Street station concealed for the most part behind the backs of rather embarrassed and giggling teenagers presumably there to give the newly arrived a clue in the chaos of the current works how to find their... [Continue reading]

The Perils of Abroad    (May 15, 2013)

Sighted recently in Nice and a reminder of one of the traditional perils of abroad – much less so now in the modern France where the thrills of the ‘accroupis’ and other eccentricties of French plumbing that so much exercised les Anglais, have gone along with our aversions to their... [Continue reading]

The white coat’s burden – healthcare colonialism    (May 8, 2013)

Colonialism is a mindset.  It governs how you see and behave unequally towards others. Few espouse the “white man’s burden” literally nowadays – and Kipling meant it ironically anyway, not as justifying a “noble enterprise”. But there is still a “colonial mentality”... [Continue reading]

Would you recommend a trip to A&E?    (April 15, 2013)

Dan Wardle is our survey guru – who better to ask about the ‘recommend’ question now being put about in the NHS as a key measure of user satisfaction. We have in the past been fans of an approach that uses this question and now we need to know how it stands up under this latest glare... [Continue reading]

Patient Powered Improvement – the new PPI    (April 12, 2013)

The old PPI is dead; long live the new PPI.  It is time we started talking about PPI in new terms because we have a new NHS structure in England.  Involvement and engagement in the PPI and PPE of old were not ends in themselves, but only means to an end.  And that end was and remains:  changes through... [Continue reading]

Time to FaceTime the practice nurse    (March 31, 2013)

Roy Lilley nailed the problem in his usual way:  I think it is only a matter of time before the public starts to say; ‘Why do I have to queue on the phone to get an appointment with my GP?’ ‘Tell me why I have to have a day off to speak to someone I can talk to on Skype from my desk?’... [Continue reading]