Blogs

Joint with Understanding Patient Data, this is our third blog on the benefits of enabling people to access their health records. Dr Amir Hannan, GP, describes how it’s normal to access electronic health records and understand them at Haughton Thornley Medical Centres.

Guest post by Deborah Fisher, Director of Crisis Response and Independent Living (South and Channel Islands), British Red Cross

Guest post by Paul Corrigan, member of the Doing the Right Thing National Steering Group

Joint with Understanding Patient Data, this is our second blog on the benefits of enabling people to access their health records. Dr Richard Fitton, former GP and Caldicott Guardian, highlights four ways in which giving patients access to their records can already help inform their healthcare and lifestyle choices, and considers what might be possible in the future should we get this right.

The Richmond Group is collaborating with Understanding Patient Data to publish 3 joint blogs on the benefits of enabling people to access their health records. In the first of the series, Ingrid Brindle talks about how accessing her GP records has helped her and her doctors to manage her health better.

In this blog Charlotte Augst reviews the 'Next Steps on the the NHS Five Year Forward View' and suggests we need to mainstream better ways of supporting people living with long term conditions.

A difficult job

Setting out credible next steps for the NHS in the current economic and political climate was never going to be easy.  Holding on to a vision in which targets can be hit and budgets balanced, on the back of fundamental changes in the design and delivery of care is doubly difficult.

In this blog Asthma UK's Andrew Cumella explains why it's so important we improve the use of healthcare data across the health and care system and the role charities can play to support this.

In this co-authored piece, NPC's CEO Dan Corry and Partnership Director of the Richmond Group of Charities, Charlotte Augst, reflect on the current challenges faced by the NHS, and the role of charities in supporting the health of the British public.

These are bewildering times for the millions of people who depend daily on social care services and the NHS. The threat of strikes, declarations of imminent collapses of both services and the continual shifts in what people are or aren’t entitled to – it's no wonder that people are confused.

Self Care Forum Board Member, Renata Drinkwater asks “what are you doing for Self Care Week?”

 “We are seeing rising demand for services, underperformance against targets and record financial deficits in the NHS. Now is the time for the system to get serious about self care, and the Self Care Forum can help,” says Renata.

Originally established in May 2011, the Self Care Forum (now an independent charitable body) is the national UK organisation which aims to further the reach of self care and embed it into everyday life, making it a lifelong habit and culture.