Patricia Hewitt Patients Quotations

The 2 million people who work in the NHS and social care are also themselves patients and users. I know they all want to treat patients and users the way they and their families would want to be treated and that is the purpose of our reforms.

We are trying to find out what patients need, rather than what it suits us to provide. And the people are saying: 'We want services to work together.' They ask: 'Why do I have to tell my story over and over again to different people; why can't I see the same person, or if that's not possible, why can't they pass the information on to other people.'

Although people are very happy with the service they receive from their GP, they are less happy with access and convenience. Patients are telling us with the health service, you either see your GP or, out-of-hours, go to accident and emergency. We need to make sure that GP surgeries become more accessible.

By expanding traditional prescribing roles, patients can more easily access the medicines they need from an increased number of highly trained health professionals.