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24 May 2018
Dying matters: Living well to the very end
Our Head of Improvement Bev Fitzsimons wrote a blog for NHS England in support of Dying Matters Week (14-18 May) in which she described the work of our end-of-life care collaborative 'Living Well to the Very End'.
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18 April 2018
Making healthcare more human: Patient perspectives
Bev Fitzsimons looks back at what we learned about patient experience at last month’s conference on ‘Making Healthcare More Human’.
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05 December 2017
‘From a vision of patient engagement, to meaningful enactment’
'Often in healthcare we talk about the way in which staff interact with patients. But we talk much less about this being a reciprocal relationship between patients and staff, in which both bring value to the relationship'
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05 May 2017
Transatlantic co-design: learning from each other
In this blog, Bev Fitzsimons recounts her trip to Toronto to run a training workshop for the Change Foundation's 'Changing Care' programme. As well as identifying shared challenges, she also considers how we can learn from one another.
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16 February 2017
What if we made decisions within the NHS only when they were in the interests of people using services?
In this entry to the King's Fund's 'The NHS if...' competition, Bev Fitzsimons imagines a health service where the interests of people using services are accounted for in decisions, and how this consultative process could be achieved.
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27 January 2017
Quality improvement – the art of the possible
Bev Fitzsimons reflects upon the need to invest in quality improvement even in the face of, or perhaps even because of, difficult challenges and transformation.
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21 September 2016
Why getting inside patients’ shoes is good for staff too
Bev Fitzsimons reflects on a frustrating outpatient clinic and wonders why addressing problems that demoralise staff and patients aren't a bigger priority.
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05 May 2016
How can feedback from patients improve care?
Bev Fitzsimons explores why the NHS is struggling to improve patient experience despite collecting vast quantities of data, suggesting that harnessing the unique insights of patients would be more effective.
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07 September 2015
We can’t be complacent with end-of-life care
A report claimed that the UK had the best end-of-life care in comparison with 80 countries from around the world. But, our head of improvement, Bev Fitzsimons feels that the good news isn't an excuse for us to stop trying to make it better.
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19 November 2014
Stories and numbers: there is room for both in understanding patients’ experience
Bev Fitzsimons, fellow in health policy at The King’s Fund, explores the false dichotomy between numbers and stories in understanding the quality of healthcare.