This BMJ editorial refers to the National Health Service (England) - it would be interesting to hear about experience in other countries. Good communication and administration are clearly important in meeting information needs.
Citation and extracts below. (with thanks to Richard Fitton)
CITATION: Poor communication with patients erodes trust in the NHS
BMJ 2025; 389 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r947 (Published 15 May 2025)
Cite this as: BMJ 2025;389:r947
Hugh Rayner et al.
Good administration is a key driver of patient satisfaction...
How often the NHS fails to deliver good administration, such as arranging appointments easily, receiving letters at the right time, and having the correct notes and test results available at the point of care, is detailed in recent King’s Fund and Demos reports. Communication is the basis of 17% of all formal complaints about hospital and community health services. Some 32% of the public think the NHS is poor at keeping people informed about what is happening with their care and treatment; 38% have been told or sent information that they could not understand...
Poor communication is not just inconvenient. About 10% of people report that their care or treatment has been negatively affected by it, and 45% say this made them worry about the quality of NHS care more generally, leading to an erosion of trust...
These problems particularly affect people with hearing or sight impairment, a learning disability, or multiple long term conditions...
Patients should be encouraged and supported to interact with their electronic health record. They should be able to personalise the way information is communicated to them and have these preferences applied consistently so they don’t need to be repeated at every encounter. Artificial intelligence (AI) tools that translate text into plain language increase patients’ understanding of documents in their health record, especially among populations with low health literacy.23 Patient centred pathology reports greatly improve knowledge and reduce patients’ worry... AI scribe software can make it easier to write directly to patients...
Addressing poor communication and administration in the NHS has to be a priority if trust and satisfaction with the NHS, among both patients and the staff who care for them, are to be improved.
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org