Campaign background

Jill Fraser and Nicola Matthews are typical of many women who juggle their time caring for their teenage children and elderly relatives. As a result, over the years they have accumulated a broad experience of the NHS both as trained nurses and, increasingly, as consumers.

Things came to a head when Nicola was rushed to hospital with an acute infection and Jill was admitted to casualty following a serious fall. Comparing experiences later led them to realise that, although lack of money and poor staffing levels were serious issues, there were also many incidences where tender loving care and simple innovative ideas could have made the world of difference to their recovery. So they decided to do something about it.

But it was more difficult than they thought. Scouring the newspapers, it soon became obvious that the press preferred hospital ‘horror’ stories, making it much harder to seek out the countless positive projects that were happening around the country.

Visiting hospitals across the country, it appeared that a good idea on one ward may not even get passed on to the ward next door, let alone the wider world. And despite award ceremonies at many hospitals which recognised innovative projects, there seemed to be no mechanism which allowed those ideas to become more widely accessible.

Back in 1860, Florence Nightingale documented her best ideas in her book ‘Notes on Nursing’. Soon, her methods were adopted all over the world. Without antibiotics or any sophisticated machinery, she made the world of difference in the Crimea; her sensible and sensitive ideas reducing the death rate dramatically in a matter of months. She may not have physically ‘kissed them better’ but those soldiers were so grateful, it is said that they ‘kissed her shadow’ as she passed their bed each evening with her famous lamp.

After much discussion and many hours trawling websites around the world, Nicola and Jill decided that a simple easy-to-use website, packed with good ideas from health workers, patients and their carers, and, crucially, backed by media coverage, could make the ‘world of difference’.

Such diverse schemes as the ‘Art Cart Programme’ at the Heartlands Hospital, Birmingham and the ‘Captain Chemo’ website at Royal Marsden Hospital, London; from the ’ HAT' initiative at The Robert Ogden Centre, St James Hospital, Leeds to the ‘Nintendo Wii’ Challenge at The Helen Ley Care Centre in Warwickshire, Jill and Nicola have sought out simple ideas that have made the world of difference to patients and their carers.

‘Kissing it Better’
Simple Ideas that make the World of Difference