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Professor Mary Dixon-Woods, Professor of Medical Sociology in the Department of Health Sciences.

Is patient care in the NHS improving?

University of Leicester researchers investigate NHS patient care.

Issued on 15 March 2010

Researchers from the University of Leicester have embarked on an extensive study of the NHS in England to find out if 2009 government plans to provide higher quality care to patients are working.

The review follows on from the government’s High Quality Care for All (HQCfA) agenda, which stressed the need for improved support of frontline NHS staff to provide the highest standard of care for patients. A collaboration between the Universities of Aston, Leicester, Aberdeen and Birmingham and the National Association for Patient Participation, the study will monitor how the NHS is responding to HQCfA and develop detailed action plans to implement its recommendations across the NHS.

The project will look at:

• Management values and practices throughout the NHS and how top-level managers and clinicians are leading on the implementation of high quality care
• How effectively front-line staff have signed up to this vision.
• How practices of staff on the front-line are influenced by management teams
• Where change has happened and where more progress needs to be made
• Where urgent and practical action needs to be taken to achieve goals.

Research tools such as in-depth interviews, direct observations and surveys will be used. Patients will also be surveyed to find out if they have noticed improvements to services. The findings will be translated into practical action plans and fed back to the NHS management board after the project closes in March 2012.

Professor Mary Dixon-Woods, Professor of Medical Sociology in the Department of Health Sciences said:

“This is a wonderful opportunity to evaluate the extent to which staff culture and behaviour in the NHS is focused on quality. We’ll be looking at the NHS from the boardroom to the ward. We aim to make our findings as useful and practical as possible.”

Note to Newsdesk

For more information, contact:

Mary Dixon-Woods,

Professor of Medical Sociology,

University of Leicester,

2nd Floor, Adrian Building, Department of Health Sciences,

Leicester

LE1 7RH.

Tel: 00 44 (0) 116 2297262

Fax: 00 44 (0) 116 2297250

Email: md11@le.ac.uk

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