The Forums One Year On

The Patient & Public Involvement Forums are heading towards their first birthday, and what a year it has been!

As with all new groups, the first few months were spent on the internal admin procedures and creating protocols for working, which is essential for the Forums to operate professionally. The Forums also spent time creating links within the Trusts they are working with and other professional organisation. Each Forum finalised their plan for the next few months/year by August, and these covered a wide range of issues (see individual Forum pages).

Membership for the Forums has been growing. Originally each Forum had 7 – 8 members, but now some Forums have reached 12 members. The Forums are continuing to recruit new people to join the Forums and become involved in Health. Even if you do not wish to become a member the Forums are eager to hear from you with your health issues.

And what about actual achievements? Well, PPI Forum North Tees highlighted the PCT to the absence of leaflets regarding the Out of Hours service is other languages. Subsequently the PCT worked with the Stockton International Family Centre to produce such leaflets, and the PCT are ensuring that further leaflets produced are done so in other languages, and information is available on cassettes and disks.

The Tees & North East Yorkshire PPI Forum, which deals with issues surrounding the Mental Health Trust in the area, has been highly involved in ensuring there is patient and public consultation when changes are considered. The Forum has been paying particular attention to the issues of Parkside in Middlesbrough area and Stepping Stones in the Scarborough area.

Hartlepool PPI Forum have been paying particular attention to the Out of Hours service, monitoring its progress since April 2004.

The above are just three examples of the many pieces of work completed. The Forums have monitored services, made audit visits to Trust premises, and asked for answers from the Trusts on issues that have been raised by the public.

Overall, in just a short time the Forums have proved their worth by ensuring questions are asked, peoples voices are heard, and the NHS Acute, Primary Care, and Mental Health Trusts have a critical friend!