On Wednesday 27 November the RCP is holding a parliamentary briefing to launch its Future Hospital Programme. In September the RCP’s Future Hospital Commission published its groundbreaking report, Future Hospital: caring for medical patients, which recommended that care should come to the patient rather than the patient being moved around the hospital.
The briefing will not only set out the recommendations of the report, but will also update parliamentarians and stakeholders from other health organisations on the implementation programme. This includes working with individual hospitals to develop and implement a new way of delivering hospital care for medical patients as outlined in Future Hospital: caring for medical patients. It will initially be a 3-year programme from 2014 to 2017, and includes the launch of a new Future Hospital journal in April 2014.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff is sponsoring the meeting, at which guests will hear from RCP president Sir Richard Thompson, members of the RCP’s patient and carer network Phil Willan and Carol Caporn, RCP registrar Dr Patrick Cadigan, and RCP clinical vice president Dr Anita Donley.
The meeting will include time for debate and contributions from guests, and the RCP hopes that MPs and peers will welcome the opportunity to discuss these issues which are always near the top of the political agenda.
Topics for consideration include:
- the patient – what issues are most important to patients (constituents)?
- hospitals into the community – how can the skills held within the hospital move beyond the physical walls and into the community?
- implications for other professionals – what do the findings of the Future Hospital Commission mean for primary care, mental health, social care and other inter-related fields?
RCP president Sir Richard Thompson, said:
I am looking forward to updating parliamentarians with our Future Hospital Programme, and encouraging a healthy debate, including the potential barriers to implementation. We want to hear what is at the top of the healthcare agenda for MPs, Lords, and healthcare organisations, and ask for their support in taking forward the ideas in Future Hospital to improve patient care.
For further information, please contact Morgan Evans, RCP communications and new media adviser, on 020 3075 1468 / 0779 508 8253, or email Morgan.Evans@rcplondon.ac.uk