Patient empowerment is crucial but leaders will be keen to understand new proposals

Responding to the Department of Health and Social Care's announcement that hospital funding will be tied to patient ratings, Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said:

“Health leaders fully recognise the importance of making sure patients and their wider communities have a meaningful voice in how their services are planned and delivered, and that their feedback steers where improvements need to be made.

“They are clear that patient empowerment must be central to the 10 Year Health Plan, both in how and where their care is delivered and also in ways that the public can support their own wellbeing, manage their conditions more independently, and live healthier lives. A more outcomes-based model is one that we have called for as a way of driving forward improvements in care.

“NHS leaders will be keen to understand more about the proposal to allow patients to decide whether or not health services should be paid in full for the services their staff deliver.  However, none of our members have raised this idea with us as a way of improving care and to our knowledge, no other healthcare system internationally adopts this model currently.

“Also, patient experience is determined by far more than their individual interaction with the clinician and so, unless this is very carefully designed and evaluated, there is a risk that providers could be penalised for more systemic issues, such as constraints around staffing or estates, that are beyond their immediate control to fix. At a time when the government has decided on a flat settlement in NHS capital investment in its recent spending review, this is concerning.”