National Patient Participation Week / PPG Awareness Week – Blog from Stephen Hardy, Independent non-executive member (citizen voice and inclusion)

Patients and their carers are the compass of our NHS. They often know the right direction of travel and how to get to a destination in the most efficient, effective and compassionate way. They are the first to enjoy best practice, suffer bad organisation and experience poor communication. Essentially, they know what ‘good’ looks and feels like.

We must get better at designing care around patients’ individual needs and recognise that one size doesn’t fit all. We’re all different and deserve treatment that recognises and respects our specific concerns, abilities, strengths and limitations.

However, and particularly in these difficult days of over-stretched resources, patients haven’t just a right to be involved in their own healthcare. We have to encourage people to share their knowledge and experience to benefit the rest of us.

For far too long health and social care has operated on the basis that professionals are the ones who know best, but that’s evidently not necessarily the case.  We all have a stake in building better care so please take the opportunities that already exist to help shape and decide present and future priorities.

Please use Patient Participation Week to get to know more about your local surgery, how you can work alongside your local hospital and how to influence others who provide local care. Help us to make a difference.

Stephen Hardy, Independent non-executive member (citizen voice and inclusion)