There are several organisations that will, together, ensure the views of patients, carer and the public are heard and acted on by all those making decisions concerning health and health services.

Local Involvement Networks (LINks) – From 31st  March 2008, Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Forums were replaced by Local Involvement Networks (LINks). A LINk is a flexible network providing a one-stop shop for engaging the whole community – from individuals to local community groups, voluntary and community organisations. The LINk will give people the chance to:

• Say what they think about their local health and care services
• Check how well health and care services are planned and run
• Feedback what people and communities have said about services so that things can change for the better.

Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) - Every NHS Trust must have a PALS service - PALS give confidential, on-the-spot advice and information to help people sort out any concerns they may have about the care that the Trust provides. In this Trust, PALS are provided by North of Tyne PALS which is a single team acting on behalf of seven trusts in the area.

Independent Complaints and Advocacy Service (ICAS) - A service to provide help and support for people who wish to make a complaint about their NHS care or treatment.

Overview and Scrutiny Committees - Made up of local authority councillors and invited others, they have the power to scrutinise and review health services and identify ways of reducing health inequalities. They must be consulted on any major change to health care or services.

Getting patients and public involved has many benefits for the Trust and as well as being a statutory requirement it also makes sense, it helps us to:

• Ensure the services we provide are sensitive and responsive to the needs of individuals and the community we serve and improve the patient experience
• Improve planning and decision making by incorporating different perspectives and reducing inequalities
• Ensure appropriate use of services and identify realistic expectations.
• Increase public confidence and accountability of services through greater openness and transparency
• Increase interest in services leading to a wider source of innovative ideas for service improvement
• Consider alternative ways of meeting health needs and look at services from a different perspective. 

Our licensing as an NHS Foundation Trust on 1^st June 2006 enabled the Trust to embark on a new era of patient and public involvement. As you can see in our Membership section we are keen to ensure that our membership is reflective of the community we serve in order to ensure that we understand what our patients feel about the care they receive and the services we deliver.

To support our commitment to patient, carer and public involvement we have:

Established a Patient, Carer and Public Involvement Committee, whose role is to develop and monitor the strategy for Patient, Carer and Public Involvement within the Trust, review patient feedback arising out of a number of mechanism including PALS encounters, comments and suggestions etc.   The Committee is chaired by the lead Executive Director for Patient and Public involvement, the Nursing and Patient Services Director.  The Committee reports on a six monthly basis to the Clinical Governance & Quality Committee and subsequently the Trust Board.

Developed a Community Advisory Panel which is a lay led panel of 11 volunteers who meet formally on a monthly basis.  Their role is to provide advice to the Trust on the patient, carer and public perspective and to actively participate in work with the Trust to bring about patient centred improvements.  The Panel recently celebrated their five year anniversary of working with the Trust.

Identified a Patient, Carer and Public Involvement Lead in each Directorate and Department who can offer support and advice to staff undertaking patient and public involvement in their area.  An informal network exists to support those staff through the provision of information and sharing good practice. 

There are many good examples of patient and public involvement activity and a clear commitment to involving patients and the public at all levels within the Trust.

 Involvement takes place at a number of levels including involvement of individual patients and carers, involvement in Directorate / Department activity and involvement in Trustwide work. To give you an idea of some of the activity:

On an individual level patients and carers are involved in planning their individual care and provided with patient information to help them make informed choices.  Patients and carers are also involved in providing feedback on services through a number of mechanisms including Patient Advice and Liaison Service encounters, patient surveys and providing comments & suggestions.

Examples of activity include:

• development of patient information leaflets with patients
• access to patient information through the internet
• Access to Medical Records Policy
• Complaints procedure information
• information about Trust services and performance contained within the Trust Annual Report and Trust patient surveys

At Directorate or Department level patients, carers and the public have been engaged in a number of ways to ensure involvement in the evaluation and development of service delivery and service planning.

Examples of activity include:

• Involvement of patients in business meetings
• patient representation on service review teams
• patient involvement in staff training
• satisfaction surveys and focus groups to evaluate new services
• development of patient support groups
• community and voluntary sector engagement

Involvement in Trustwide activity has focused on encouraging patients and the public to become involved in planning groups and in Trustwide projects.

Examples of activity include:

• Patient membership on the Trust Patient, Carer and Public Involvement Committee
• Clinical Governance and Quality Committee
• Project board for the NSF for Older People
• Involvement in Patient Environment Action Team Inspections and cleanliness visits
• Equality and Diversity Working Group
• Focus Groups with Disabled People regarding the Essence of Care Standards
• Community Advisory Panel representation on the Patient Information Review Panel