People with a learning disability are being asked to contribute to new tests which will help improve NHS services ranging from dentistry to acute care, NHS England has announced.
The NHS Quality Checkers programme sees people with a learning disability employed to inspect local NHS services critically, to provide advice on how they can better meet their needs and those of other patients.
People with a learning disability can face significant barriers to accessing NHS services, whether it’s the use of complicated forms and language, confusing layouts of buildings, or staff who aren’t sure how to interact with them. This contributes to people with a learning disability being less likely to use services, including important programmes like health checks and cancer screening; as a result, they are more likely than average to experience poor physical health than the rest of the population.
Quality checkers use their own experiences to assess the quality of care and support patients receive, giving a view that can be often missing from other forms of inspection. Evaluation of quality checking programmes currently operating in some areas show them to be an effective and efficient use of resources, and to be associated with increases in quality and improved outcomes. Building on this success, NHS England is now seeking input on new resources which will help support a national rollout.
