Providing patient access to quality health information is the new ‘blockbuster drug’ of patient engagement, a report has shown.
Published by the Patient Information Forum, the report claims that there are good “business reasons” to justify putting more time, money and training into health information provision.
The group said that commissioners and providers will see substantial capacity savings and investment returns by increasing the self-management of patients with long-term conditions.
One analysis suggests that if 10% of GP attendances for minor ailments were avoided through online self-care advice £830 million could be saved per year.
Professor David Haslam, National Institute for Care and Health Excellence chair said: “Providing high-quality for information for patients can be every bit as important as providing good medication, and similarly, there can be risks and side-effects to getting it wrong.
“This is why for every piece of guidance we issue on the diagnosis and care of a particular condition we publish a “patient version” alongside it, which summarises our recommendations in everyday language.”
The full report is available on the PiF website.
