This study explores health care professionals' views about safety in maternity services. It identifies aspects of care that are less safe than they should be, possible ways to improve safety and potential obstacles to achieving these improvements.
This report provides a snapshot of user and public involvement within primary care groups (PCGs) in London, based on the views of their chief executives and lay members. It is the first output of a two year study conducted by the King's Fund Primary Care Programme which will describe and ...
This volume contains the full tabulations from a survey of 1139 Londoners. The survey was conducted by phone between 19 and 25 April 1999. The data are weighted by age, sex, working status and residents of inner and outer London, to ensure they represent the adult residents of the former ...
This report summarises the main results of a survey of approaches to commissioning. All health authorities were surveyed and a 100 per cent response was achieved. The survey sought to map different approaches to commissioning and to assess the impact of these approaches from the perspective of health authorities. The ...
This report examines the findings of a national survey of NHS speech and language therapy managers and assesses the impact made by the reforms on this profession. It is divided into six parts. The introduction describes the context of the research and briefly reviews the literature which informed and seems ...
This is a report of a survey undertaken on behalf of the King's Fund London Commission. It provides an overview of the current configuration of acute hospital services in London, and consists of a description of the method and data sources used for the survey, a profile of acute services ...
This is one of the supporting papers informing the work of the King's Fund London Commission. It identifies and catalogues needs assessment work undertaken by London's health authorities or relating to local health needs in London between 1993-96. It also examines the range of approaches to and methods of needs ...
The NHS reforms placed a requirement on all doctors to improve the quality, effectiveness and efficiency of medical practice by undertaking a regular programme of audit. Through a case study of the introduction of medical audit support staff, this publication documents how this process has been accomplished to date. It ...
In December 1991, the Information Resources department at the King's Fund Centre conducted a survey into the European health care interests of King's Fund staff. The aims of the survey were: to determine current interests and work patterns at the King's Fund in relation to Europe; to assess the need ...
This document summarises the main points which emerged from an exercise undertaken to establish the extent of work taking place in the area of contract specifications. Three regional health authorities (Trent, East Anglia and Wessex) and selected districts outside these regions with acknowledged track records in quality were targeted for ...
This paper presents the results of a Task Force survey of the health authority members, and the efforts which have been made by the health service to include black and ethnic minority communities in membership. The report includes information about the responsibilities of health authorities, the duties of members, appointment ...
The aim of this project was to discover whether the needs of people whose relatives die in hospital are being met within that setting. Surveys were undertaken to gain the views of both sides, by seeking both the experiences of bereaved relatives, and by ascertaining the procedures and practices of ...
This book is based on the first research study to look at the impact on women of a positive cervical smear and subsequent investigation and treatment. It follows their experiences from the initial discovery through to outpatient treatment or inpatient surgery. The authors describe the thoughts and feelings women have ...
In order to gauge the reactions to the Griffiths proposals on community care, the King's Fund Institute sampled opinion across health and social services in the UK by conducting a survey of health and social services managers and a scan of principal practitioner journals. The review of reaction demonstrates a ...
The King's Fund Institute was invited by the Acheson Committee to conduct a survey of community physicians in English health authorities. This report first gives an outline of the history of the specialty of community medicine. The methodology of the survey is then described, followed by a presentation of the ...
This is the result of a postal survey which was circulated to all health authorities in 1987. The survey attempted to ask three questions: where are quality circles being used in health care; what are quality circles achieving; could a quality circle be considered to support a network in health ...
At whatever age general practitioners retire, whether early, late, or at what is regarded as the conventional time (65), this is likely to have substantial implications for manpower planning - in the UK for example in connection with the demand for and establishment of vocational training schemes. A study of ...
The Quality Assurance Project was set up at the end of 1984 to stimulate the assessment and promotion of quality in health care in Britain. This report presents the findings of a survey undertaken to identify what practical steps were being taken by individual professional organisations (colleges) and to make ...
This publication consists of the collated information of a survey undertaken in the autumn of 1985 by the Long Term and Community Care Team at the King's Fund Centre. All NHS district general managers in the UK were contacted, to find out about innovations in services for the elderly during ...
The discussion in this paper is based on the findings of a study supported by the King's Fund and conducted under the auspices of the Royal College of Radiologists Working Party on the Effective Use of Diagnostic Radiology in which four strategies were evaluated for implementing guidelines on the use ...
This report contains the findings of a survey of ex-national trainees who are not currently working in the NHS. A surprisingly large number of trainees left the Service before reaching senior positions. Not only did this represent a waste of the money and manpower which had gone into their training ...
The basis of the project paper reports a study of area management teams carried out in England by Rockwell Schulz between January and March 1981. Perceptions of consensus management are discussed with a study of the roles of individual team members and the influence of others such as local authorities, ...
This paper contains the results of part of a study relating to the information flow in and out of and within the district office. No attempt has been made to prescribe in detail a total system but it is hoped that the general principles and approach described will assist district ...
This report contains the findings of a survey of chief officers on management teams in the NHS in England and Wales. The survey, carried out in 1981, was part of an initiative by the King's Fund to develop a management education programme for the most senior officers in health services ...
This gazetteer is compiled from a national survey of innovative projects in medical records and medical information systems. Projects are indexed regionally and by key topics. The sections covered are: hospital clinical records; hospital specialty systems; high dependency medicine; hospital information systems; interface; primary health care; automatic patient interviewing; computer ...
This report deals with the immediate welfare of patients who have just been discharged from hospital: how they manage, what help they need and who provides the help. The authors, both voluntary help co-ordinators, interviewed 250 patients about their experiences and their problems. There are many direct quotations from the ...
The aim of this report was to devise a method by which psychiatric hospitals could discover the views of their patients. Three methods were tried out in wards similar to each other in each of three hospitals. A simple, written questionnaire, answered anonymously, was found to be satisfactory except for ...
This is the third edition of a survey which aims to devise a questionnaire that general hospitals could use to find the views of patients about their stay in hospital. The questions cover five areas of life in hospital: the ward and its equipment; sanitary accommodation; meals; activities; and care ...
The aim of this report is to help those planning to survey patients' opinions on hospital care by summarising the experience of others who have already done so. It describes the different types of surveys used, the resulting action achieved and a summary is given of changes in levels of ...
The purpose of this survey was to undertake an exploratory enquiry on the views of both staff and patients about psychiatric departments in general hospitals, mainly in London and southern England. It does not attempt to be a comprehensive attitude survey. Fourteen departments were included in the survey; at the ...
This experimental project took place in Newcastle upon Tyne to look at the health of elderly people. The aims of the project were: to develop experimental after-care and preventive medicine with patients, their friends and families; to help develop relationships that bridge the gap between family and friend and hospital ...
This survey of employee opinion was an innovation in the hospital field and so it is hoped that it will be of interest to a wider audience than just the London Hospital Group as some of the results have implications of more general interest. A small number of results from ...
This project paper presents the results of a series of studies of hospital house journals. It reflects the views of producers and consumers - the editors of house journals and their readers. The project has highlighted the importance of good communications in hospitals, has demonstrated that a house publication can ...
This is the second edition of a survey which aims to devise a questionnaire that general hospitals could use to find the views of patients about their stay in hospital. The questions cover five areas of life in hospital: the ward and its equipment; sanitary accommodation; meals; activities; and care ...
The management of the Royal Masonic Hospital requested the King's Fund to advise on the renewal of equipment for their kitchen. The Fund agreed to advise on: the staff establishment; buying; layout of kitchen and dining room; equipment, stating approximate life and usefulness; and systems which may show financial savings. ...
The attitude a nurse has towards a patient is one of the most important factors influencing the standard of care patients receive. But a nurse's attitudes to patients are influenced by the attitudes of senior and junior staff. Attitudes between staff and attitudes of staff to patients are, in reality, ...
This project was undertaken to collect information on the services offered to people with learning difficulties in seven diverse local authorities of the country and to involve providers of service in a systematic examination of it. A random sample of those people with learning difficulties in the community and under ...
This project was undertaken to collect information on the services offered to people with learning difficulties in seven diverse local authorities of the country and to involve providers of service in a systematic examination of it. A random sample of those people with learning difficulties in the community and under ...
This project was undertaken to collect information on the services offered to people with learning difficulties in seven diverse local authorities of the country and to involve providers of service in a systematic examination of it. A random sample of those people with learning difficulties in the community and under ...
This project was undertaken to collect information on the services offered to people with learning difficulties in seven diverse local authorities of the country and to involve providers of service in a systematic examination of it. A random sample of those people with learning difficulties in the community and under ...
This project was undertaken to collect information on the services offered to people with learning difficulties in seven diverse local authorities of the country and to involve providers of service in a systematic examination of it. A random sample of those people with learning difficulties in the community and under ...
With the growing acceptance that nurses should be relieved of non-nursing duties an increasing number of central plate and tray services are being considered by Hospital Management Committees. One such service is the Regethermic system, an innovation from France. The King's Fund was asked to promote an experiment with the ...
The Catering Advisory Services agreed to examine the food service arrangements at all the hospitals within the Southport area and to recommend the most suitable system for them collectively or individually. This examination was considered keeping in mind modern catering techniques and possible future developments. An examination was made of ...
This report considers whether or not the Royal Northern Hospital should introduce a central plate system for meal distribution or continue with a tray service of meal delivery. It describes the current methods of food delivery and makes some recommendations.
In 1962, sixty women living alone took part in a seven-day weighed diet survey. When the dietary intake of women in their early and late seventies was compared it was found that there was a decline in dietary intake of as much as 30 per cent in some nutrients between ...
Towards the end of 1969, the Belfast Hospital Management Committee asked the King's Fund to sponsor a review of the operation of the out-patient department since the implementation of the recommendations made in a previous report in 1967. This is a copy of this report which includes a summary of ...
The attitudes that nurses adopt towards patients can be created by a number of different pressures, and they can effect the type of care patients receive. The King's Fund undertook an attitude project and then discussed the possibility of finding out what nurses' attitudes were through a series of discussion ...
This is the first edition of a survey which aims to devise a questionnaire that general hospitals could use to find the views of patients about their stay in hospital. The questions cover five areas of life in hospital: the ward and its equipment; sanitary accommodation; meals; activities; and care ...
This pamphlet examines the history and future of consultation in the hospital service. It shows that, from its beginning, joint consultation faced particular hazards and difficulties to which a large number of committees have succumbed. The fact that some have survived is a sign of latent vitality and it is ...