HEALTH

NHS ‘could improve by listening to patients’

The Times Health Commission was told that patients often turned up for appointments only to be told they had been cancelled
The Times Health Commission was told that patients often turned up for appointments only to be told they had been cancelled
ANTHONY DEVLIN/PA

The NHS must listen to patients rather than “confound” them if it is to become more efficient and safer, a patient watchdog has said.

Louise Ansari, who heads Healthwatch England, told The Times Health Commission, that the health service could make “efficiency and productivity gains” based on patient stories. She cited times when “appointment letters arrived after the appointment date, [patients] were given the wrong number to change the appointment time, or they turned up to an appointment only to be told it had been cancelled at the last minute”.

“Ordinary people are just confounded at steps where there should be a seamless service for them,” she said.

Supporting the idea that healthcare professionals other than GPs should be able to refer people to