Editorial: Patient involvement

Improving the quality of care has been an NHS priority for many years and many guidance documents have been published, such as the Department of Health’s Patient and Public Involvement in the New NHS1 and Signposts from NHS Wales, which includes many practical examples of good practice2. The Kennedy report following the Bristol inquiry also highlighted the need to ensure that ‘the perspective of the patients and the public must be heard and taken into account’3. While this is a very complex issue, NHS organisations must nonetheless make patient involvement and public participation a reality; only thus will they be sure that their services meet the needs of the population they serve. Patients, their carers and the public should be involved not only in shaping their local services but also in monitoring their quality. Greater participation will engender greater trust in the local health services and will improve communications between NHS organisations and the communities they serve. How can this be achieved? Most organisations have by now developed their patient involvement strategy and have included users on their clinical governance committees, which allows them to use patients’ expertise to inform service development. Patient advocacy liaison services and patients’ forums are being set up across the NHS in England; it is still early days and their benefits have yet to be fully realised. Different methods for patient involvement have been described, such as focus groups for patients with specific conditions, patient diaries, opinion surveys, questionnaires, patient involvement in critical incident reviews and citizens’ juries. The NHS Modernisation Agency has published a guide4 which gives a description of the tools available; so too has NHS Wales, whose guide includes not only a description of the various methods but also their advantages and disadvantages2. When choosing a method, however, organisations and clinical teams must be clear about what they are trying to achieve5, so that the information they gain is relevant to service improvement. This issue of the Bulletin gives a number of practical examples of patient involvement. Whether public participation can lead to long-term improvement in the outcome of care will require further investigation. Future issues will cover guidelines and clinical networks, and will also revisit topics examined in previous issues. Please continue to send in your contributions so that others can learn from your experience.