Passport to quality

The COPD patient passport has been produced by the Respiratory Clinical Pathway Team at NHS North West and is being used to help empower patients to take more responsibility for their own care.

National guidance and research shows that people with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), which includes conditions such as emphysema and bronchitis, can improve their health and have a better quality of life by taking a more active role in their own care.

A strategy report on COPD and asthma suggests savings that could be made by the NHS by encouraging self-care options could run as high as £350 million over ten years. However, until recently no work had been done around how best to make sure people had an input and how to ensure they gave proper feedback to ensure the care they received was of the highest quality available.

The passport was produced following interactive networking events with patients and carers from 24 localities across NHS North West which tested patient’s experiences of care and the quality they received. It allows care professionals to measure adherence to quality standards as well as providing patients with options for different interventions that they can take along with contacts for the British Lung Foundation.

Dr John Williams Co-Lead NHS North West Respiratory Pathway, said: “The passport is a printed document that informs patients of the markers of a quality service so they can see for themselves if they are getting the best quality of care. If they feel, for any reason, that the treatment they are on isn’t working they can initiate an informed discussion about making a change in their treatment.

"In the long run it means that patients are empowering themselves to achieve the best standards of care which should mean a better quality of life and better outcomes from treatment.”

The innovation is part of the North West QIPP programme. QIPP (Quality, Innovation, Productivity and Prevention) is a large scale transformational programme for the NHS, involving all NHS staff, clinicians, patients and the voluntary sector. It aims to improve the quality of care the NHS delivers while making up to £20billion of efficiency savings by 2014-15, which will be reinvested in frontline care.

Gill Harris, Chief Nurse for the NHS North of England said: “Quality of care is of paramount importance to the NHS. NHS North West is continuously striving to find innovative ways of improving the quality of care and treatment provided.

"The QIPP programme is used to encourage this work and we have seen some tremendous new projects come from it that are making a real difference to the care we provide.

“To do this we rely on the feedback of patients and staff. We value all kinds of comments and want to hear about everything so that we know what works and what doesn’t and can make appropriate changes.

"We may not be able to take on every suggestion but who knows, someone might have a simple solution that could really make a difference, it’s those kinds of suggestions we are looking for.

"I would encourage anyone who has comments, both positive and negative to contact their hospital. They can find contact details via the hospital web site or by looking on www.northwest.nhs.uk .”

For more information on the QIPP programme you can visit www.northwest.nhs.uk/yournhs/