I was commissioned (see what I did there?!) to do two infographics for the launch of the ‘new’ NHS, one on NHS Commissioning and one on how the NHS is monitored or safeguarded. While I’m not sure whether they were used, and regardless of my political feelings on the matter, understanding the changes is going to […]
Read more "NHS England"Not the mean kind of hacking. The good kind. I’m going to go to my very first Hack Weekend in May 2012, and it’s all about hacking the NHS. The aim of a hack day is to find quick and dirty solutions to problems that technology can fully or partially solve. They don’t have to be finished, […]
Read more "Hacking the NHS"Lately, I’ve been working on helping our Heart Voices team at the British Heart Foundation develop flowcharts to explain the current state of the NHS, and the changes we’re expecting under the new legislation. We’ve also outlined the health services in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We want to encourage heart patients all over the UK […]
Read more "Explaining the NHS"Warning: contains politics! What does the word ‘open’ mean to you? To me it’s linked with a few things — it means something that everyone can get hold of and get involved in, that everyone can see how it works, and that is open to people’s feedback, and their criticism. It shows you exactly what you’re going […]
Read more "Exactly how open are Open Public Services?"The government has put out a paper on what they want the NHS to look like in the future. Here’s a summary of things you might like to know about what they’re claiming will happen, from a patient’s point of view. It will still be free! That’s not going to change. You’ll be able to have any GP you want. But […]
Read more "The new NHS: a patient’s point of view"At the moment, if you don’t live in the UK, and you come here and get treated at an NHS hospital, sometimes you’re supposed to pay for it. You can get registered at a GP surgery, you don’t have to pay for emergency treatment, and for urgent things like giving birth you will be treated without having […]
Read more "Are we getting our money’s worth from health tourism?"The NHS constitution has been around since January 2009. It’s a promise from the NHS to you that they will look after you properly, and that you have a right to be looked after well when you need to use NHS services like hospitals, doctors and dentists. It’s taken a while to get there, but from January 2010 all the […]
Read more "Waiting times and health checks on the NHS"So said the leaflet that has dropped through every door in the United Kingdom. At my last ever literacy volunteering session in Birmingham (at the wonderful Brasshouse Language Learning Centre, with the tutor Nerys and all the adult literacy students), we went through this oh-so-important leaflet, and came up with stumbling blocks all over the place! […]
Read more "Important information about swine flu!"