Posts under ‘Healthcare’

I really, really try not to use football analogies in my work. I know that they are lost on many people and just annoy many of the others. Much better to use gardening, family or businesses for material.
But after a month of high profile football (you might have heard about it) perhaps you can forgive [...]

I was at the NHS Confederation Conference last week, which was both well-run and insightful. I went with a view to understanding more about how NHS organisations are learning about their customers and addressing their needs through the lens of the service’s current challenges.
The conversation was dominated by the shift to GPs holding the majority of the [...]

I am attending the NHS Confederation Conference this week. The conference has a reputation as the must attend event in healthcare. There are many others, but amongst my clients and colleagues the Confederation conference is regularly mentioned as top of the list in the sector.
With the coalition starting to flex its muscles, health policy is [...]

We have had a debate in the office recently about the role of research agencies in the ‘behaviour change’ agenda, considering why traditional research companies seem to have been hesitant to embrace this zeitgeist.
There can be a degree of confusion over what topics and ideas are covered by this behaviour change concept. For some, it [...]

The RSA hosted a curious event this week, looking at the subject of altruism by way of a discussion about organ donation, and vice versa.
Billed as part of the RSA’s Social Brain project, the debate meandered between a philosophical debate about the definition of altruism, sober exploration of the issues faced by those needing organs [...]

There has been widespread discussion of the future of the NHS. A number of different models are debated - should there be more private sector involvement , a return to a centrally managed system, or even widespread privatisation. Although it regularly comes under fire, I believe that the NHS is here to stay. I for [...]

As a tour guide on London’s open-top buses, I used to look forward to passing the Florence Nightingale Museum. Just after Westminster Bridge, and before Waterloo station, it gave me the chance to waffle about the Crimean War, a historical interest in healthcare that culminated in the National Health Service and, of course, the fact that [...]

People in the NHS work very hard. I know that and you know that. It’s a valuable service and one of which we should be very proud. But culturally there is still a big barrier in understanding patients as customers. NHS support staff must stand in line at Argos getting annoyed at the rubbish service [...]

Take a good look at this photo. If that’s not a mess I don’t know what is. The truth is you’ll see many noticeboards like this in services run by the NHS - it’s a marketer’s nightmare. Even though it has a broad theme (I took it in the maternity wing of my local hospital) there are [...]

It’s a year since we first started talking to NHS organisations about our ‘customer care in the NHS’ package of research. And I can now tell you that we’ve successfully delivered our very first piece of customer care work - to NHS Sefton.
With customer care being a topic of discussion amongst the team for the [...]