Patients’ prospectus launched on NHS Choices

The Department of Health has launched its patients’ prospectus on NHS Choices.

The prospectus, promised in a speech by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in January, aims to offer the 15 million people in England living with a long term condition access to a choice of ‘active patient’ or ‘care at home’ options.

The prospectus has gone live on NHS Choices as Your health, your way – a guide to long term conditions and self care. It is not tailored to specific conditions, but aims to provide generic information about the choices that should be available locally to improve self-care.

In a letter to primary care trusts this week, Mark Britnell, DH director general of commissioning and system management, emphasised that the prospectus was not new policy.

He wrote: “ ‘Your health, your way’ provides an opportunity to draw together all the strands of work/information that are already out there and to put them into a format that is accessible and understandable for patients, putting a public face on existing policies.”

Your health, your way includes patient experiences, information on care planning, advice on lifestyle changes and information about telehealth and telecare.

The government has pledged that, by April 2009, people with long term conditions should expect local services to be provided by PCTs to match the national offer.

Britnell said NHS Choices would be the first and main channel for Your health, your way, although it will also be available through other channels to reach those with the greatest need, lowest health literacy and lowest health engagement.

The prospectus was welcomed by Neil Churchill, chief executive of Asthma UK, who said it was a chance to provide much needed support to people living with long term conditions.

He added: “People with asthma have told us that they want to be involved in managing their asthma, but they need information about what is involved and what to expect from local services.

"Online resources like this are an important element of information provision and Asthma UK looks forward to seeing it evolve over the next six months.”

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Your health, your way