Herefordshire and Worcestershire NHS Trust working to make health information more understandable
The trust launched a health literacy project last year to aim to make information more accessible for people using its services and is continuing the work
Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust is continuing its aim to make health information clearer and easier for people using their services to understand.
The trust launched a health literacy project last year after its community engagement panel completed an audit of patient letters, websites, and leaflets in 2024.
It assessed if the information was written in a way that’s easy to understand and focused on ensuring content had a compassionate, friendly, and reassuring tone, so patients feel supported and confident in their care, with their feedback helping to shape improvements.
According to national data, almost 4 in 10 people struggle to understand routine health information, which the trust say when numbers are involved, rises to more than half of the population in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.
So far the trust has trained 45 patient volunteers who help review content before it reaches patients, with new resources and checklists developed to help staff create and review patient information with health literacy in mind.
"In terms of impact, we know that it's going to improve patient experience," said Kate Wood, digital and community engagement manager and project lead at the trust.
"It's now at kind of the front line of NHS services where when we send out letters, or when we do leaflets or websites, how can we make it easier so that people can find the information they need so that they understand the words on the page and then they can make informed health choices based on that.
"For example, if you're turning up to a site and you don't know where to go or the right terminology of a ward name or something, actually having that is going to stop you feeling a bit embarrassed or confused or anxious."
Some of the work the trust say they've carried out so far has seen its most visited web pages reviewed and simplified, one example being improvements to its physiotherapy referral webpage (with 25,000 hits last year) which reduced the reading age from 19.4 to 13 years.
It added that the project is "ongoing", with further training and activity planned over the coming months.