Too many people believe that to achieve great things we must make brutal sacrifices, that to succeed in work we must focus single-mindedly, at the expense of everything else in life. Even those who reject the idea of a zero-sum game fall prey to a kind of binary thinking revealed by the term we use to describe the ideal lifestyle: “work/life balance.” The idea that “work” competes with “life” ignores that “life” is actually the intersection and interaction of four major domains: work, home, community, and the private self.
I start my mornings with a run around Central Park in New York City. Over the last 18 months, it’s become more like dodging the cyclists as I make my way around the loop than going for a relaxing jog. Cursing, flipping the bird – even a near miss – are regular occurrences as these two groups of athletes try to get their daily workout. I’ve even seen a cyclist spit on a runner. How could so many cyclists be so angry? Wanting to understand, last Saturday I borrowed a friend’s bicycle, strapped on his cycling shoes, and clipped into the pedals. I entered the park on West 77th Street, where a steep ramp descends into the 6-mile loop. I quickly accelerated down it and had to merge onto a roadway packed with runners and pedestrians who weren’t paying attention to me. As my bicycle picked up speed and I tried to enter the loop, I realized I was in danger — and so were the runners in my path. That’s when I shouted, “HEADS UP!”
NHS Improving Quality will launch a pioneering project this autumn that pairs highly-rated cancer trusts with trusts that have potential to improve in a bid to reduce national variation in patients’ experience of care and raise overall standards.
The support package is a response to the results of the latest Cancer Patient Experience Survey (CPES), which were released last week. The survey, which is carried out by Quality Health on behalf of NHS England, reflects the views of more than 70,000 patients and identifies those trusts with the highest ratings, as well as those that need to make improvements.
The ‘buddying’ programme will involve up to 12 trusts and aims to enable the ‘most improved’ trusts to share best practice and accelerate the adoption and spread of new ways of working.