Being patient: Communication and its impact on innovation through the eyes of a patient (and former healthcare senior manager)

Abstract

Introduction When I worked in the UK National Health Service (NHS), one of my colleagues, who had started her career as a trainee hotel manager, used to tell amusing tales about her days in the hotel trade. One of her responsibilities was to check that the chambermaids and cleaners had left each room in a pristine condition. The hotel’s general manager told her there was only one way to inspect that standards were being maintained: you had to lie down on the bed, and in the bath, to have the same view as the guests and to be able to check if there were any embarrassing stains, cobwebs, or unclean spots anywhere. And she went off to lie down in 50 or 60 baths and beds, day after day. The relevance of this anecdote still holds true. Between 1996 and 2006, I was an inpatient in six hospitals in England and Wales and a regular outpatient in two others. I might have been an NHS employee for 20 years, but it was only when I spent time in hospital beds and baths that I was able to gain valuable insight that only patients can obtain. I have seen it all: the good, the bad and the just about acceptable, and this may be the account of a former health service manager and a current academic, but above all it is the account of a patient — a patient who can look at the health service through a relevant diagnostic lens. This opinion piece is the account of a patient who is an ardent supporter of the NHS. What is written is fair and balanced: the dedication and accomplishments of clinicians, managers and other staff are acknowledged — they did, after all, twice save my life. The case study also recognises that, ‘In most cases, it would be wrong to blame individuals. The systems that have been set up create the conditions in which this behaviour is the rational result of the incentives’.1 Opinion paper