What patients have already told us

We gathered together lots of information about what people had already been saying about musculoskeletal services. This information included complaints, comments and compliments, patient opinion and previous pieces of engagement. All this information was analysed and the following themes emerged.

• Inconvenience - People are most unhappy when they have experienced cancellations, delays and waits during their referral or treatment.
• Communication – How people are communicated with is important to them. They value good staff attitude. They want clear information.
• Choice and involvement – People want to understand, and have a choice over, their own health. They want to be seen as experts of their own health.
• Learn to live – People want support to be able to live with their conditions, look after themselves and be able to do the things that they value. They want to be confident to live their lives.
• Convenience – How services fit in with people’s lives is important to them. Times and locations of appointments are important.
• Treat me as a whole - People want to be treated as an individual and their needs recognised, even if they are not clinical needs.
• Quality care – People want good quality care from knowledgeable people. They want a diagnosis and want to know what this means for them.
• Peer support – People want to be able to talk with others who have had similar experiences of living with musculoskeletal conditions.