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Consumer champions in the NHS

Submitted by adwoawebber on Wed, 20/08/2008 - 3:13pm.
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Hi I work for a Primary Care Trust (NHS) which is doing some strategic work on developing services for patients. One of the requirements of this work is that we get public involvement in any changes/improvements that are made. I'm part of a strategic group that has to approve some of the changes/improvements to patient pathways (the journey that a patient with a certain condition takes through the health service). The group is made of up NHS managers and doctors but what we'd really like is two members of the public/volunteers to become part of the strategic group to act as "consumer champions". Their role would be to, a) Make sure that the group only approves patient pathways that can demonstrate user involvement/have had an equality impact assessment; b) Make sure that the group takes due notice of the views of patients and the public. Has anyone come across any sort of role description for this kind of thing or a person spec? Any hints and tips will be gratefully received!! Best wishes Adwoa Webber
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Patients Council

Submitted by nshaw on Mon, 08/09/2008 - 2:49pm.
Just a quick thought for you. Many Trusts have PALS, however in my experience mental health service users often had concerns/reservations in respect of their neutrality, with PALS still being seen as part of statutory services, as such this was sometimes a barrier to this particular group of patients. Bolton Royal, part of Bolton, Salford, and Trafford NHS Trust, specifically mental health services, had, last time I was involved with them, a patients council; whereby patients, carers (Essentially volunteers) and non statutory organisations could have input into statutory services/service provision. It worked very well, and helped to empower patients in relation to many things around treatment options, interventions etc; allied to this Bolton also used to have annual "Take it to the top" events, whereby all concerned parties had the opportunity to ask questions of the heads of trusts, managers, psychiatrist etc, the format was much like BBC's question time, and worked very well. Unfortunately the acronym for take it to the top was (T.I.T.T), but I’m sure there are other options. Hope this helps
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I haven't seen a specific

Submitted by Nikki Squelch on Thu, 28/08/2008 - 8:46pm.

I haven't seen a specific role outline for what you describe, but am aware that many PCTs have 'lay members' - that, is members of the public who join to add consumer voice. You may be able to start there? I would think that PALS in most trusts have a variety of roles - including ones about user-involvement forums - or am I being niave in that respect?

Hope this helps a little?

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Thanks for replying Nikki.

Submitted by adwoawebber on Mon, 08/09/2008 - 1:09pm.

Thanks for replying Nikki. You're right in that we have a variety of lay members but sometimes (and usually for good reason) they don't have a formal role description. I need one for my group because I want to be fair to the volunteers and the group about expectations, etc. and also make sure that there is a good "fit" (I was the volunteer to be really challenging to towards the rest of the group!).
Thanks again for taking the time to respond to my query.

Adwoa

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