Health Services and Social Services: Patients
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that people feel safe providing feedback where that feedback is critical of NHS or local authority services under the proposed arrangements.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
Integrated care boards will have a statutory obligation to obtain the views of people who use health services, those who may use health services, and their carers and representatives. Local authorities will have the same responsibility in respect of care services and their public health services.
This will ensure patients’ views, both negative and positive, on their experiences of care and their health outcomes will be meaningfully heard and tangibly shape service delivery. If an organisation is failing to carry out their statutory functions, my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, will have a power to issue directions.
Through the new Patient Experience Directorate, we will make sure the voice of patients and service users help shape policy at national level, so that lived experience drives action, reform, and better care. The Patient Experience Directorate will also develop a clear, high-quality approach for gathering, interpreting, and acting on feedback across the National Health Service.
Independent scrutiny will remain, with the Care Quality Commission continuing its vital role as the independent regulator.
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