The Government has launched a new website that will allow doctors and other NHS staff to have their say on health policy creation.
The website, ‘TalkHealthandCare’ will enable doctors to offer their views on five challenges, including improving shift patterns, speeding up the use of helpful technologies that cut out paperwork, and training and development.
The Department of Health and Social Care said the platform was launched following feedback from NHS staff, that they are not feeling valued at work.
On the website staff can post ideas, questions and challenges for Government to respond to.
The DHSC also announced the launch of a new workforce panel of staff who the Secretary of State will meet with to discuss issues affecting health and care staff across the country.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘It’s time we hear from health and care staff about what they really have to say about the jobs that are at the heart of this country.
‘Nobody knows what needs improving more than hard-working staff themselves, so my message is clear: we are listening to you, we want your views and we will use them to ensure the long-term plan for the NHS helps you.’
Mr Hancock, who was formerly the digital, culture, media and sport secretary before taking up his current post, has stressed the importance of using IT systems for communication.
In a speech at NHS England’s Health and Care Innovation Expo last week, the health secretary outlined his strategy to take NHS IT ‘from the most mundane to the most exciting’ but added that to do this NHS systems first need to ‘talk to each other’.
This comes after the BMA and the Government reopened junior doctor contract negotiations, after working patterns were a major flashpoint of previous negotiations.
