Heather Eardley

Development Director for the Patients Association

What is your role and background?

I’m Development Director for the Patients Association, where I’ve been working for the past five years. I have 35 years of experience of working in health and social care, originally qualifying as social worker but also as a patient with a long-term condition and a carer. I strongly believe in the importance of ensuring people who use services are treated as equals and involved at all levels from the consultation with their clinician/practitioner through to strategic planning and decision making and monitoring of services.

The Patients Association is a national independent charity which “listens to patients and speaks up for change” – as well as providing a national helpline and campaigning on issues related to health and social care, we also undertake a large number of projects to help find solutions and work together with NHS and other organisations to ensure patients and carers can influence improvements.

What can a typical day look like in your role?

My role is wide and varied. There is no typical day. Some days I am working from my home office in Devon writing reports, project proposals or making phone calls to directors of nursing, patient experience leads and other organisations, discussing ways in which we might work together or set up a new project. My role includes providing support to our project managers across the country and responsibility for the overall quality of our projects which is really important to us. I also lead on our volunteer Ambassador network which involves interviewing new applicants and linking them to projects. Other days involve travelling to different places for meetings or events. Some days I am in our head office in Harrow meeting with our Chief Executive, Katherine Murphy, or other staff and liaising with our helpline team about issues generated by the many calls and emails.

How many calls does the Patients Association helpline receive a week? Are any of these calls nutrition related? How/when can patients access the helpline?

Our national helpline is open weekdays 9-5pm (0845 608 4455 or 020 8423 8999 or email: helpline@patients-association.com). The helpline receives about 8,000 calls a year and we also offer a casework support service for complex complaints. We are usually the last resort for many people providing information and advice such as how to find services, how to make a complaint or appeal, access to treatment /services, etc. We often get calls about concerns about hydration and nutrition particularly from families of frail elderly people and people with dementia. Some of our project work has also identified lack of information about nutrition and diet for patients in the community and in hospital.

How can dietitians support the Patients Association locally (or provide any feedback)?

It would be really useful for us at the Patients Association to know about how we can better support patients and provide up-to-date information about the dietetics service, as well as providing local dietitians with feedback on their work.

What areas of the UK are the Patients Association involved in projects that dietitians may/may not be aware of?

An example of our most recent work includes working on a large project in Devon and Cornwall (and now in Waltham Forest) helping to support and develop Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) in GP practices. It is now a requirement in the new GP contract that very practice has a PPG to gather the views of the local population and feed these into the practice to influence service improvements. Many PPGs and GPs are now seeing the potential for providing education and information sessions for patients with a focus on health and wellbeing. The input of dietitians could be very influential here.

We currently have a project developing a nutrition checklist for people leaving hospital, which we are testing in several pilot sites with the help of our Ambassadors. We are also about to start work on a child malnutrition project and are a member of the NHS England nutrition and hydration strategy group.

What is the focus for the Patients Association this year?

The main focus of our work this year is about supporting people through the complaints process and helping NHS trusts and other organisations improve their complaints handling by focusing on the patient’s perspective. For many people it is very hard to pluck up the courage to complain and most people just want to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen to someone else. Sir Robert Francis QC is our President and is very supportive of this work having undertaken the review at Mid Staffordshire. We have just produced a series of patient stories on film and will also be launching our 2016 Patient Stories publication which we understand is used by several universities and colleges to train their students. We also want to focus on the many positive aspects of our health service which we hear about and to share and promote examples the best practice.

Where do you live?

I live in East Devon. The three places I would recommend to anyone visiting when they come here is Sidmouth – a lovely Georgian Town with lots of nice shops and restaurants – the South West Coastal footpath which has some fantastic views, and the Jurassic Coast which is a World Heritage site.

What is the book you are reading at the moment or would like to read?

The book I’m reading at the moment is Labyrinth by Kate Mosse which is interesting because it flits from 13th century to present day. I belong to a book club which meets monthly and encourages you to read titles we wouldn’t normally choose!

What is your favourite meal?

My favourite meal is a roast dinner or something spicy. I like cooking and from past experience have learnt how important food is to making you feel well. There is a lot of confusing information for the public so it is important that people are properly informed and get good advice about diet and nutrition.