August 2025
About 20 patients and carers so far have been helping to shape the MEASURE study. Their experiences with and opinions about surgery are influencing what we are doing. Here are a few examples:
- Our Study Steering Committee gave us no less than 17 action points based on the patient and carer input we presented.
- We learned that one of the goals of surgical hubs, a short hospital stay, is not always the top priority for patients. This influenced our data analysis and interpretation of results.
- We found great variation in patients’ experiences with pre and post operative care, and with communications during those times. So we have decided to include those topics in our study.
- Conversations with patients and carers helped us understand which types of surgical hubs we should visit for in-depth investigations. For example we have selected hubs in richer and poorer areas for comparison.
- Patients’ and carers’ stories shone a light on why patients choose private healthcare rather than wait. They also highlighted that patients choosing private care may not always be taken off the waiting list.
In August 2025, the patients and carers involved MEASURE received a newsletter to tell them about their impact on MEASURE, and to say a huge THANK YOU to them.