Thank you to everyone who got in touch to give us ideas about how shared decision making can be integrated and improved in the NHS in England. I think it’s fair to say that while we all support the idea of shared decision making, many of us are sceptical when it comes to how effectively it can be implemented without making appointment times a lot longer. Even then, many of us don’t feel that doctors will be willing or find it easy to accept a shift in the power dynamics with their patients, particularly amongst older consultants. We hope we’ve captured those points in our submission below.

While we wait for the outcome of this consultation, and of the consultation on chronic primary pain (which has been delayed by covid), we will be preparing for what promises to be an important consultation coming up: assessing chronic pain. So have a think about how you would like your chronic pain to be assessed. Do you like the 1-10 scale, or do you think that only really works with acute pain? Is there an easy to use equivalent for chronic pain or is it just more complex an answer?

In the meantime thank you again for your input.

Ellie and the Chronically Awesome team.