Where have we been hiding?

Well, the last few months have been busy.

As Mr Lansley and his crew have been “pausing and listening” we have been doing other things, namely working to support the establishment of a new social enterprise venture – PATIENTSTORIES

Building on our work using film to document work around quality and safety, we decided it was time to get focussed on an approach that might push this forward to another level.

We have therefore provided some “start-up” funding for PATIENTSTORIES which is a new on-line service which using documentary and drama-documentary film-making techniques to provoke discussion and debate amongst healthcare professionals about safety and quality issues in healthcare.

At the moment, PATIENTSTORIES is still a part of awr strategic communications ltd (it’s called a trading style I believe!) but we will be running it on a “non-profit” basis – essentially reinvesting any revenues after our costs into making new content (films, podcasts, resources etc)

By combining the courage and generosity of the people whose stories we are telling and the professional skill and sensitivity of the writers, film-makers, journalists and improvement advisors we have been working with, we think PATIENTSTORIES has some powerful tools to offer anyone interested in setting a new tone for their work around quality and safety.

Over the past few months we have been “testing” the films and other content with a variety of different audiences ranging from undergraduate doctors, nurses and AHPs; frontline NHS clinical teams, managers and executives; and national and international leaders in the domain of safety and quality in healthcare.

The feedback to date has been very encouraging and the issues that have been raised in subsequent discussions and debates have been wide and various. Of course everyone sees different things in these stories and relates the learning in different ways to their practices and work situations.

The next few months will be about promoting the new website and the films that are currently available and seeing if people feel they are useful in practice. We’re also going to investing in producing at least two new films too.

So, have a look at the new website www.patientstories.org.uk and let us know what you think.

We’ll also be developing some new awr projects in the coming months including a new joint project for radio with PATIENTSTORIES.