Leading Improvement in Health and Care Podcast

I was delighted to join Professor Frankie Swords, the newly appointed Medical Director across NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care, on the Leading Improvement in Health and Care podcast to explore what quality in healthcare really means through the eyes of service users.

Drawing on my own experience of living with Long COVID, we discussed why quality cannot be defined by data alone, "Quality isn't something the NHS simply delivers – it's something people experience." We explored how leadership, organisational culture, lived experience and co-production all shape whether people feel safe, heard, respected and believed.

Our conversation covered the NHS Quality Strategy, the Experience Excellence Framework, tackling health inequalities and why lived experience is evidence. We also reflected on the importance of designing services that are inclusive by design, not digital by default, and recognising that improving quality means working with people, not to them.

Ultimately, quality is about human connection. It's found in the everyday moments when people are listened to, treated with dignity and made to feel they belong.

Listen here: What does NHS England's Quality Strategy mean in practice? - Leading Improvement in Health and Care | Acast

- Sarah Barley-McMullen - Chair of Long Covid SOS