Support for ICSs to embed patient partnership in your work

Why work with us

Our relationship with patients means when we work with them, there is genuine engagement. We bring those relationships and our skills in engaging patients when we partner with other organisations who want to work with patients or local communities.

You can read about our work in patient engagement here. As the health system changes and Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) take on new roles and responsibilities we’re eager to share our expertise to ensure the work ICSs do is enhanced by putting the voice of patients at its heart.

The value of patient partnership

Partnering with patients in their own care and treatment and in the design and delivery of services has multiple benefits. Those benefits are:

Quality and outcomes: Working in partnership with patients ensures services meet patients’ needs and achieve better results for patients.
Cost-effectiveness: By meeting patients’ needs, less money is wasted on ineffective services, or on services needed to put right problems arising from inadequate care and treatment.
Safety: A system that works with patients will value their input and be responsive to concerns about emerging safety problems.

We want to continue partnering with the health and care system to realise these benefits.

The six key principles of patient partnership

We’ve identified six key principles of patient partnership:

Treating patients as equals
Patients who are fully informed
Shared decision making and patient partnership
Recognising inequalities
Seeking patient input
Joining services around patients.

When there’s evidence of all six, then organisations are working in partnership with patients.

Implementing our principles

Patient partnership should be the building blocks of the new NHS structure. We want to help ICSs put these principles in place.

The Patients Association has developed ways to assess if an ICS is working in partnership and to help it achieve partnership.

For information on how we can partner with your ICS to embed patient partnership, contact Rachel Power, Chief Executive, at [email protected]

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