My GP is not the centre of my health universe...

Today saw the publication of "Liberating the NHS: An Information Revolution”.

The consultation paper lands in an environment of high expectation – some stakeholders were hoping it would solve the ongoing issue of the separate existence of NHS Choices and NHS Direct (it doesn’t), some were hoping it would integrate more fully with government G-Cloud plans (it doesn’t), and others were hoping it would set out a truly user-centred vision of the NHS (which it starts to).

I admit I’ve read it once, and more of the carefully crafted themes will likely resonate on my second or third pass.

But as a user, my initial impression is that the NHS has fallen into the trap of believing it is at the centre of my health universe.

There are plenty of mentions of ‘helping people to care for themselves’ and increasing ‘people’s ability to manage their own health care’. But the assumption seems to be that this will be done by allowing me access to records about me held by the health system, or data/indicator sets about NHS performance.

The truth is, my health consumption is largely outside of the NHS and is largely self-service – not because I use private healthcare, but because my definition of health extends beyond an occasional, 7-minute interaction with my GP. It includes my visits to the gym, the food I buy, my uses of fantastic tools like FoodFocus, the free Bupa online health check I used recently and my conversations with friends or colleagues that ‘nudge’ me into healthier behaviours.

So there is little I can learn by accessing my NHS health records; but there’s a lot my GP could learn by viewing my health as more than the sum of my official interactions with the NHS. For me, the consultation document doesn’t paint a clear enough picture of how ‘the information revolution’ is going to enable my GP to get a better understanding of my health, or transform my life for the better. Hopefully that picture will come when the strategy document is produced in early 2011.

As a channel shift professional, I’m excited by the reference to the opportunities to leverage digital technology to increase efficiency and to drive greater self-service. But I’m not sure where responsibility and the passion for making this happen will sit in the reformed NHS.

For example, the paper openly acknowledges the need for a channel strategy to join up the user experience, but it also references the NHS 111 service, and as far as I’m aware, NHS 111 has yet to articulate its strategy for making efficient use of non-telephony channels.

Producing a paper that satisfies all interests and all expectations is an impossible task, so I think the Information Strategy team has adopted the right approach in producing a consultation paper rather than a fully formed strategy. I’d encourage everyone to have a read and consider responding – the consultation is open until 14 January 2011.