Patient & Public Involvement/Volunteers
The NHS is moving ‘from a service that does things to and for its patients to one which is patient-led, where the service works with patients to support them with their health needs' Creating a Patient-led NHS (DH 2005) access here.
As part of that shift, we want local people - patients, carers and local residents - to become involved in the planning and delivery of our services. We believe their involvement will lead to better patient care, a better hospital environment and greater public confidence in our organisation.
We have produced a strategy, setting out how we will achieve our aim of building continuous and effective public involvement into all aspects of the work undertaken by the Trust.
More importantly, we are developing a range of opportunities for local people interested in getting involved. These include:
- Joining one of our groups as a patient/carer representative
- Helping us recruit and train our staff
- Telling us about your experiences of our services
- Commenting on patient information
- Monitoring the facilities for patients within our hospitals.
Every year, independent surveys measure what patients and carers think of our services and compare our performance with Trusts elsewhere in the country. This year, the Trust&rsqu;s Accident & Emergency Services were rated amongst the very best in the country. The results of these surveys can be found on The Care Quality Commission website.
The Trust works closely with the Hospitals Trust Patient & Public Involvement Forum, an independent organisation made up of locally recruited volunteers with an interest in health service provision www.cppih.org
Volunteers
We currently have over 900 volunteers providing a range of services for patients throughout the Trust including hospital radio, patient escorts, WRVS tea bars and trolley services, therapeutic services and fundraising.
We greatly value the contribution volunteers make and are currently looking at improving the support they are given in line with national recommendations.
For more information about any of these activities, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please contact our Head of Patient Experience.
