Vulnerable People – planning for the future
The Royal United Hospitals Bath wants to help people who have additional needs get the care and support they need. Tell us your views - help us to support vulnerable people.
The first step:
In June 2023 we sent out a questionnaire to our local community. This questionnaire asked:
- What does the word "vulnerable" mean to you?
- What do you think would make someone vulnerable?
- Have you ever felt vulnerable?
- If yes, what was it that made you feel vulnerable?
We received nearly 300 responses from patients, their families and carers, members of our local community and RUH staff. Many thanks to all who responded.
The responses provided us with a lot of helpful information. For example we identified some vulnerabilities. These were age, disability, abuse and risk, mental health and learning disabilities
Next, we wanted to learn more and have conversations about vulnerability, so we arranged meetings (virtual and face-to-face) in October and November 2023. These helped us understand what is important and what will make a difference for people who may have additional care and support needs.
In the meetings we will discuss:
- What is important when vulnerable people are receiving care and treatment?
- What is important when vulnerable people are communicating with health professionals?
- What do we do well when caring for vulnerable people?
- What could we be doing better when caring for vulnerable people?
We held meetings and visited community groups. Each meeting and visit had a different area of focus based on the responses we received to our questionnaire. We wanted to know what is important and below is a list of themes from each of the meetings:
People who came to our meetings about vulnerabilities and older age, talked about the importance of:
- Good communication
- Shared decision-making
- Links between primary and secondary care
- Empathy and compassion
People we had conversations with about vulnerabilities and children and young people, talked about the important of:
- Being listened to
- Good communication
- Sharing information and decisions with parents
- Accessible / children friendly environment
- Toys for young children
People who came to our meetings about vulnerabilities and Learning Disability, talked about the importance of:
- Good communication
- Knowledge and awareness of their condition
- Having enough time to talk to health professionals
People who came to our meetings about vulnerabilities and Physical Disability, talked about the importance of::
- Accessibility
- Communication and appropriate use of language
- Compassion
- Person-centred and relationship-based care
The main themes are:
- Tailored, inclusive, unassuming communication with staff
- Unbiased, genuine, understanding compassion by staff
The next step
During February we will continue to ask more groups and individuals about vulnerability, and about what is important for them.
What we have heard so far will help us to start to write our plans to help people who have additional needs get the care and support they need. We will be doing this in February and March 2024.
In April 2024 we will share a draft of this plan with those who have told us their views. We will ask them if it says what they have told us and what matters for people who may have additional care and support needs when they are receiving health care and treatment.
We will then make any changes to the draft to make it a final plan, which we will use to focus our work over the next three years.
We would like to acknowledge and thank everyone who has completed our questionnaires, attended our meetings, invited us to their groups, and have offered to continue to be involved in developing this important work.
Your involvement will make sure we focus our work on what is most important for ‘vulnerable people’.
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If you would like to get involved in future conversations about planning the support for vulnerable RUH patients, please email: ruh-tr.patientexperienceteam@nhs.net