Patient centred care
The importance of listening to the patient experience
A physiotherapist specialising in orthopaedics, Alicia Stanton is currently Head of Service Improvement at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Birmingham. She highlights the importance of putting patients at the centre of care delivery, using their experience and knowledge to make change happen.
We know that it’s through lived experience that we can gain a true insight into the patient journey and what improvements will ultimately improve the patient experience. At the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (ROH) in Birmingham, this concept was applied to our hip and knee replacement services, involving patients in service evaluation through patient follow-ups. It’s a great example of experience-based co-design in practice. The approach puts patients at the centre and uses their experience and knowledge to make change happen. Experience- based co-design is used throughout the NHS as it’s recognised as a great way to improve services with impact. The collaborative approach to improving healthcare services puts patients and healthcare staff at the heart of initiatives and potential changes. However, not all programmes are created equally and there are many factors that can make or break an experience-based co-design project, from engaging the right people at the right time, ease of contribution to shared responsibility for delivery of changes.
Rocket fuel for feedback The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital leverages this approach in its patient Coffee Catch Ups. Initiated in May 2019, Coffee Catch Ups are a part of the JointCare pathway – the ROH’s innovative hip and knee replacement programme. The JointCare programme is built on a ‘wellness model’ which means that NHS patients are treated in an environment which encourages them to move and improve, focusing on what they can do rather than what they can’t. During their first appointment, patients have
the choice of using either a handbook or digital app which helps them prepare for each stage of their procedure. The emphasis is on independence and returning to a better quality of life as soon as possible. The evidence suggests that exercising soon after surgery aids recovery and supports people to get back to life more quickly. A group dynamic is central to the pathway and making sure patients are fit and healthy before and after their surgery. One of the most important elements of the JointCare pathway is the Coffee Catch Up events. These are reunion
sessions, where the service improvement and clinical teams can meet with patients, answer any questions, and gather feedback in an informal and relaxed setting. These events were organised to give patients the chance to provide detailed feedback on their whole patient experience, giving staff a valuable insight into what they do well, and perhaps even more importantly, what they could do better.
Getting to the root of things Continuous improvement (CI) is well established across the NHS for its role in enhancing patient care, long-term sustainability and broader community health, and is a cornerstone of the strategy at ROH. These Coffee Catch Up events, and the broader JointCare pathway, demonstrate the real benefit of involving patients in continuous improvement. This is all about evidence-based co-design and lived experience. Rather than focusing on purely the physical, it incorporates the emotional journey too. Who knows better than the patient that has gone through the pathway? They may think of
28
www.clinicalservicesjournal.com I August 2025
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
