The Care Campaign, Call to Action

1. The Care Campaign, Call to Action

2. CARE Campaign • On the 9th November 2011, the Patients Association published their third compendium of patient stories and at the same time in partnership with the Nursing Standard magazine Angela Rippon OBE, Vice President of the Patients Association launched the CARE Campaign. • WHY – the CARE campaign? The Patients Association has seen a huge increase in calls to our Helpline. When we looked closely at the type of calls we noticed the reason patients, their relatives and carers were contacting us time and time again were around the fundamentals/essentials of patient care.

3. The Rationale • Our campaign is based on the four most frequent concerns expressed by patients, their relatives and carers, regarding poor patient care. These include: • Patients not being helped to go to the toilet • Patients not given sufficient pain relief • Patients not given sufficient nutritional intake • Communication is inadequate (e.g. Call bells are ignored) • The campaign recognises that everyone who goes into hospital or a care home has a right to these fundamental aspects of care. This is explicit in the NHS Constitution. We have seen many reports, commissions and pledges that have come to nothing. Now it is time for action from the ward to the Board.

4. CARE Challenge The CARE Challenge: As a minimum, all patients should get assistance when they call for help, encouragement to eat and drink, assistance with going to the toilet and receive appropriate pain management. CARE stands for: C – communicate with compassion A – assist with toileting, ensuring dignity R – relieve pain effectively E – encourage adequate nutrition

5. The care slogan is simple, easy to remember and also useful. We hope patients, the public, relatives and nurses will use this Care slogan as a care checklist.

6. Campaign Aims • For healthcarestaff in every sector to adopt the CARE Challenge • To highlight obstacles healthcare staff face in delivering the CARE Challenge. • For all UK health and social care organisations to sign up to the CARE Challenge. • For UK patients, their carers and relatives to recognise the CARE slogan and use it to challenge poor care as well as celebrating good care. • To support healthcare who blow the whistle on failures to deliver fundamental CARE.

7. What we have done so far At the end of November 2011 the Patients Association wrote to every Chair, Chief Executive, Director of Nursing Services and Medical Director in the UK asking them to sign up to our CARE Challenge and we have been reassured by the commitment shown by MANY (but not all) Trusts. SO WHAT NEXT FOR THE PATIENTS ASSOCIATION? You will shortly receive from us details on the campaign to display in your Hospital. Please do so. Unfortunately we are not in a financial position to send every Hospital posters but we will send you the digital artwork and we would like a letter of commitment from the Chief Executive saying their Trust have embraced the concept and aim to deliver the care challenge to every patient in the UK.

8. Next Steps The Patients Association will work with the Care Quality Commission looking at Trusts who have responded committing to the Care Challenge – we will share this information with the CQC local inspectors and they will, during their inspections look for evidence of commitment to the delivery of the CARE challenge. A dialogue between health care workers and patients is now open and is crucial to achieving the highest standard of care that every UK patient is entitled to.

9. The Patients Association • The Patients Association is an Independent Charity – we respond to what people tell us. We want to work with every Trust in the Country to make the experience of healthcare better for our patients. • We have submitted applications to grant making bodies for funds so we can employ staff to help us deliver on this challenge. We are committed. • We are delighted to have had the opportunity to work with Gill Heaton, Cheryl Lenney and their colleagues at MRI. I visited this Trust months ago – I am really impressed with the work they do and the commitment from staff here. Can we replicate even some of the work they do so well here? • We would like the Patients Association to become the hub of good and best practice so we can cascade the learning to every Trust in the UK.

10. Influence • On the 6TH of January 2012 the Prime Minister announced that there would be a focus on improving quality in the health service and the drive to ensure that every patient is cared for with compassion and dignity in a clean environment. His message was that the whole approach to caring for people in this country needs to be reset and that needs to start with this simple fact : caring for patients is what nurses do, everything else comes second. • The Patients Association welcomed the initiative everything in the announcement is a significant step forward in meeting the demands of our Care Campaign. • The Patients Association have consistently said that Nurses need time to care and we have for many years called for an end to bureaucracy that stops effective nursing.

11. Please email us and tell us how you are embracing the CARE challenge. We would like to work with you. • carechallenge@patients-association.com • Our Helpline 0845 608 4455 • Admin 0208 423 9111 • Thank you.