Richard Sloggett, Programme Director at Future Health joined a Health Service Journal panel discussion this week with patient representative organisations to discuss ways to engage patients effectively in the Covid-19 backlog. The group discussed a number of key issues including how to improve:

• The level of engagement with patients waiting for treatments – through the use of dedicated points of contact and digital tools
• The type of engagement – including support for helping people manage their health whilst on the waiting list
• The quality of communication – through making language and information more accessible and easy to understand

Richard highlighted a number of research reports of interest including those by Policy Exchange: https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/A-Wait-on-Your-Mind.pdf

And National Voices: https://www.nationalvoices.org.uk/publications/our-publications/patient-noun-adjective-understanding-experience-waiting-care