"How patient centred is your hospital?"

I am not a patient but a relative of one. 1. It would seem that the department my relative attends as a patient with long term illness doe not prioritise personal continuity of care. But evidence suggests that both patients and doctors value and benefit from this. In some medical schools students are paired with patients over their entire training period to embed the idea of partnership and shared decision making. Both of which are accepted good practice. 2. When patients are seen in outpatients they do not appear to be routinely given a date for a return visit. This contrasts with my experience as a hospital patient and seems poor practice. Working patients need to arrange their lives. Their time is as important to them as time is to hospital staff. 3. Patients are not routinely sent results of investigations .Is this a missed opportunity to increase patients understanding of their medical conditions and help them, particularly those with long term conditions self manage their illness? something they all have to do all given that their contact with health professionals is mostly confined to bar the 2 - 3 ten minute hospital OPD visits per annum, Given that the direction of travel is to share all personal health records with patients this would seem the right direction to go in? 4. Are patients with long term conditions routinely given Care Plans? This does not seem to be the case although its established best practice. www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g2136) (blog.bmj.com/bmj/2014/06/16/angela-coulter-person-centred-care-what-works/)