Improving Children and Young Peoples Experiences of Heath Care - Coursework Example

Improving Children And Young People’s Experiences Of Heath Care Task Introduction In order for every patient to have satisfactory treatment in health care, quality must be experienced at every stage of their treatment. Improving quality has always been an objective of the NHS. Been an employee in the NHS in a community with children with complex needs from the age 0-19 as a trainee assistant practitioner; I got to know that quality is one major consideration that determines the outcomes of health care. There have been a lot of eye opening encounters as to why quality services matter when it comes to dealing with patients whether they are adults or children. Therefore, the experiences will inform this order when it comes to quality in the health care and especially in the NHS. Quality in any field generally depicts rendering services that are of high standard to the clients. NHS has settled for the definition that quality as pertains to health care entails three facets. One of the elements is that of ensuring that there is effective care as well as treatment availed to the patients. The second element that NHS quality lays attention to is ensuring that safety and care are of paramount consideration in discharging health services (Serrant-Green, 2014.p.3). Finally, the experience that patients get while undergoing treatment and how positive it is should be of great consideration in every level of treatment. Moreover, it is essential to note that these elements are interdependent of each other and quality can only be reached when all of them are strictly fulfilled. In NHS, quality matters in rendering care services because it one of the ways that can make it possible to reach its set outcomes framework. The indicators in health care as pertains to outcomes framework in NHS contain five domains and one is that of improving life quality for the people that have long-term ailments (Department of Health, 2013.p.6). The other one is ascertaining that everyone attains quality encounters while undergoing treatment. In addition, the framework also focuses on prevention of people from premature deaths. Moreover, making sure that patients get treatment in safe environments and that harm that is avoidable is navigated is yet the other domain. The framework also advocates that all patients get full restoration from diseases or injuries they may have with the inclusion of children as well (Colver, et.al, 2013.p.1). Inequality in health care is a matter of quality than compromises services. Health inequalities can be defined as the disparities that manifest in the health determinants distribution among different groups of people. In fact, such disparities are considered to in equitable when they are unfair to people or discriminatory (Royal College of Nursing, 2012.p.1). In the UK, there has been a remarkable improvement in life expectancy owing to improved medical and technological advancements as well as high training offered to employees (Royal College of Nursing, 2012.p.1). However, the improvements mask a huge disparity between those who are financially able and those who are deprived. This is basically the reason as to why children born from well of families are likely to grow well without any diseases or even disabilities compared to those born out of poor families (Wharton, Hames & Milner, 2005.p.275). This is simply because economic as well as social determinants encompassed in our various backgrounds greatly count when it comes to health outcomes. The other instance is that Health determinants are thus a collection of aspects in which get born, develop, live and even work. Such determinants involve housing, living conditions such as housing, education and the health systems. The WHO notes that the determinants further get modeled by such forces as economics, policies available in the society as well as politics (Royal College of Nursing, 2012.p.1). Therefore, it is clear that as much as some inequalities in the health care are out of natural unfair circumstances, others are imposed whether by politics, practices or policies available and are thus avoidable. Statistical evidence in England demonstrates that people residing in challenged back grounds in average are likely to die 7 years before those that are rich(Royal College of Nursing, 2012.p.2). The gap for disability free life expectancy among the rich and the poor localities stands at averagely 17 years. It has also been unveiled that men living in poorest localities are likely to die 11 years earlier compared to those from least deprived areas (Royal College of Nursing, 2012.p.2). For Northern Ire land, men inhabiting the most deprived areas are likely to die 8 years early compared to those in rich places. In 2010, the UK’s Committee tasked with Public Accounts demonstrated that although NHS directs 4% of its spending on ending the gap, its extent in ending such inequality is not that readily available(Royal College of Nursing, 2012.p.3). In a bid to tackle such inequalities in health, there has been formulation of strategies and policies at both the national as well as the local levels. There have been various government policies for instance, “Every Child Matters Agenda “set forward by the Health department in 2004 to make equal the life chances for each child in England (Royal College of Nursing, 2012.p.3). Although the Agenda aimed at minimizing the gap in life expectancy as well as halve child poverty, none of these was reached. To date, at the National level, there has been the formulation of the Equality Act, which now prohibits discrimination as well as inequalities and it grants the NHS an opportunity of alienating such a vice (N H S, 2014). The rationale behind formulation of the Act is that service providers such as the NHS as well as other organizations have an obligation to handle all their patients equally without any discrimination whether due to one’s color, their religion, race, because of disability or otherwise (European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.2013.p.8). This move has thus ensured that individuals are protected against any discriminatory handling by Associations or service providers in the health care. Equality Act outlines covers social services including NHS providers, Associations handling aged and disabled persons, homes caring for children who cannot be cared by their parents for various reasons as well as the NHS commissioners (Hunt, 2007.p.2252). Therefore, the Act’s formulation was a great move towards curbing inequalities in health care. At the national level, one also has their rights protected under the European Convention on Human Rights as pertains to health care. Such rights involve that to life, respect, as well as prevention from any discriminatory treatment and every person including children have these inalienable rights (Lambert, Coad, Hicks, & Glacken, 2014.p. 195). The NHS in return has a constitution that spells out the various principles that it must adhere to as well as the rights that patients have (Serrant-Green, 2014.p.4). Among its principles is that of ensuring that all patients get out standing treatment without any discrimination. Other principles involve providing the highest most attainable level of health care; that it is accountable to the general public; its services are client based and that it liaise with other sectors in a bid to attain best quality of health care. The values contained therein are also of great importance when it comes to strengthening processes and services in the NHS especially, since it advocates for such values as integrity, respect as well as accountability that are vital in health care (Bassett & Westmore, 2012.p.23). NHS also documents data concerning inequalities in health care. This is a huge step in addressing inequalities since it shines light on what the situation is like in social care with regards to inequalities in attaining health care (Barron, 2008.p.32). It is with such data that policies get formulated at all forums in a bid to address inequalities reflected by the report given hence this helps in tackling inequalities as pertains to health. The NSH has also ensured that there is plenty of information to all people concerning the research it partakes in. This strategy of making sure that it there is accessibility of the information pertaining to its research enables everyone have knowledge on various subjects. In a bid to achieve quality, NHS also liaises or rather collaborates with various sectors and thus acting as a catalyst in health provision (Gill, 2011.p.26). For instance, it liaises with the local authorities as well as non-statutory bodies and trusts offering Primary care in a bid to provide share health services (Perez-Merino, 2014.p.39). Such collaboration is also vital in ensuring that people deviate from unhealthy life styles especially in deprived areas (Barron, 2008.p.32). In addition, when various bodies come together, costs and responsibilities that may be experienced by one single body are shared and this subsidizes health care in a great way leading to improved services across the divide. NHS has also come up with a strategy of children inclusion in health affairs by making services young friendly, for instance through improved communication and accessibility to health services ( Cheetham, Ellins, & Callum, 2013.p.37). This ensures that all children get a fair share when it comes to health care by actively engaging them. NHS also seeks young people’s feedback when it comes to services they have received and this enlightens the organization on what measures they can adopt to improve quality in services concerning children. Governance, which is majorly the managerial part of an organization, takes a central role when it comes to the functioning of any health institution. Governance refers to the rules, responsibilities structures or even values as well as strategies in placer that an organizations invokes in a bid to ensure that its offers the top most kind of services (Gottwald & Lansdown, 2014.P.11). Whenever the governance of an organization is incredible and orderly, so are the services it provided. At the NHS, research governance has been fundamentally established bearing positive outcomes in health. For any quality research to be undertaken there ought to be accountability, integrity and even respect with regards to people’s rights as well as appreciation of dignity for all (Bassett, 2012.p.24). In that light, there are various requirements that call for proper strategies to be formulated in order to ensure that research is achieved appropriately.NHS human resource takes note of careers that develop Research as well Development (R&D) and this is a major step especially in dealing with inequalities as it avails the required statistics to enable policy formulation One of the things that NHS believes in is a culture of offering support to the research as a way of to implement best practices. It has a well articulated strategy that links the priorities of the national government with its own, which greatly helps in achieving quality (OReilly, 2010.p.8). Moreover, NHS funds activities linked to research to ensure that they are effectively run (Department of Health, 2005.p.19). In fact the organization is also keen to train its human resource in a bid to ensure that they carry out research in the best ways possible. NHS also embraces a diversity strategy in its research governance. This is to imply that it takes note of the fact that people are diverse and that they come with different believes and practices. In that regard, they appreciate that people have different colors and religions enabling people from all back grounds to actively participate in care research regardless of their back grounds. The diversity culture is so articulate that it applies to all stakeholders whether the staff, service providers or even the patients (Mcsherry, Pearce, Grimwood& Mcsherry, 2012..p.7) .A diversity culture is thus one of the ways in which discrimination gets evaded and ultimately inequality is dealt with in social care. In a bid to achieve quality research, NHS embraces an ethics culture. This is so since it cannot proceed with research if a person’s consent getting sought (Cowan, 2009.P.192). In fact, even if animals are the subject of research, the highest attainable animal husbandry must be adhered to and a veterinary needs to be present in the exercise (Department of Health, 2005.p.17). In addition, all stakeholders must be treated with utmost dignity and in the rightful ways. This ensures that there is equality in health care and that no single person gets exploited unfairly. If someone cannot be actively engaged in the process of obtaining consent, then the relatives may be actively engaged, for instance the children and those challenged mentally. In recent times, there has been the formulation of the Mental Health Act regards to obtaining consent in the health sector. The Act ensures that every person’s consent is sought especially for people who do not have the required mental capability to offer consent (McClimens, Brewster& Lewis, 2013.p.14). There have also been queries on the use of patient’s data available in an organization’s databases to carry out research and this has led to the recognition that confidentiality as well as consent is vital in health care (Stevenson, 2015.p.2). In case children are involved in a research, ethical procedures must be adhered to as well in a bid to ensure equality (Hadjiconstantinou & Forbat, 2012.p.22). NHS widely recognizes that seeking consent is a vital requirement in health care (Mold, 2012.p.2030). Scientific Review or rather audits totally independent persons are a principle of the NHS. This principle is very crucial at the NHS since it ensures that proposals as well as teams to carry on the research in the organization get reviewed in a bid to gauge their credibility. In this regard, the NHS partners with other organizations of care provision to ensure that quality is enhanced and that there is no duplicity of functions. The organization also assesses outcomes achieved from the research. There are also appropriate mechanisms geared towards assessing the progress of research in NHS. Monitoring in fact, ensures that standards required are adhered to and that complaints with regards to inappropriate conduct in the course of research and other disciplines are effectively handled. The NHS Board is also of great importance when it comes to good governance. This is because it assumes various roles that are very instrumental to NHS processes. For instance, the Board is accountable for strategy formulation in the organization. The Board also ensures that there is accountability in health care. It is informed by external factors and at every point, must engage with stakeholders to ensure that health care is informed and that there are healthy relationships with all people involved whether it is the staff ,commissioners or even the regulators (Leadership Academy,2013.p.7). NHS Board is also tasked with strategic formulation of decisions in the Organizations. In addition, the organization holds the managers and directors in NHS accountable for actions partaken to them. The Board also exercises the role of promoting equality and eliminating discrimination in the organization in the entire health care. The various strategies bear huge benefits to the NHS in various ways. For instance through encouraging diversity, the organization is able to appreciate every person and thus eliminating discrimination and inequalities that may manifest in health care. In addition, through ensuring that it has incredible governance when it comes to its research, this has enabled the organization partake the exercise effectively leading to documentation of appropriate data that is accessible to everyone that can aid in policy formulation. The principles that the NHS relies on are also top notch since they for instance, advocate for non-discrimination and this is a key way to ensuring that services are fair to all and that no single person feels left out. The NHS Board is also a very instrumental body that ascertains that processes are directed in the right way and that finances are utilized properly. In addition, due to proper governance, professionals are able to carry out their tasks properly. However, the various strategies adopted by NHS continue to be faced by various challenges. One of the challenges is the dynamic legal regulations that emerge and NHS has to adhere to them each time it makes formulations. The other challenge is that there continues to be an increase in long term conditions among the population and this burdens health care because it requires new policy formulation to handle them time to time (Gillam & Siriwardena, 2014.p.60). In addition, technological as well as scientific advancements get costly each time and this makes such practices as research expensive to engage in. Conclusion Quality is very vital in health care. In fact, it is only through quality services that in equality can be achieved in health care. In NHS its principles, values as well as practices greatly help when it comes to making sure that equality is achieved in health care despite of one’s color, their age, ability or even social status. Other practices that help in handling inequality are through research, making sure that the young partake in health decisions and also by ensuring that NHS partners with other stakeholders in a bid to improve health care. Good governance and strategic formulation of policies are also at the heart of improved quality in health. Therefore, quality services are the basis upon which health care is anchored and without it, everything is deprived and inefficient. References Barron Kevin. 2008. 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Wharton, S, Hames, A, & Milner, H .2005. The accessibility of general NHS services for children with disabilities, Child: Care, Health & Development, 31, 3, pp. 275-282. Read More