Empowering patients: What is to be done?

More than a quarter of our population – some 15.4 million people in England have one or more long-term conditions – and the number is rising. An increasing number of these have multiple conditions.

They live with their conditions day in day out – typically having contact with healthcare professionals for around 3 hours per year. For those people who are not confident to manage their conditions, the risk is that they feel abandoned, and may be at an increased risk of experiencing a crisis which requires emergency health services.

The Institute of Public Policy Research surveyed 2,500 people with long-term conditions.

• 63% were satisfied with their day to day management, and this means that 37% were not …
• 77% thought more of their care should be managed independently at home
• 75% chose a named contact- for queries as the option likely to be most useful
• 70% wanted better access to their health records
• 61% said health coaching would be useful
• 58% wanted more support

IPPR argues that more should be done to support people with LTCs, and their carers, and to enable them to work in partnership with healthcare providers.

What initiatives are you involved in? What is working for your practice and patients?

See Patients in control: Why people with long-term conditions must be empowered