Final Report: Involvement at a national level in the formation of health policy

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Final Report > Chapter 28: Public Involvement Through Empowerment > What is the agenda for public involvement? > Involvement at a national level in the formation of health policy

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Involvement at a national level in the formation of health policy

20 The recent and growing recognition that the public must have more opportunity to be involved in the NHS is beginning to take effect. There have been a number of initiatives to involve the public and patients at national level, some examples of which are shown in Box B.


Box B Examples of recent initiatives to involve patients and the public in the formation of national policy on healthcare: `The NHS Plan': groups representing patients and carers were involved in the process of developing the Plan and are represented on the 12 working groups charged with implementing the Plan. The Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), amongst its `project boards', has one devoted to patients and the public. CHI inspection teams include `citizen and lay' inspectors. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) is seeking to ensure that arrangements are in place for the participation of patients and the public in all areas of its work. The NHS Research and Development Strategy is committed to involving the public as active participants in setting priorities and commissioning research. Since 1998 the Department of Health has undertaken a national annual survey of patients' views.

21 In terms of the quality of care, the first and most obvious method of ensuring that the public's interests are served is to involve the public adequately and appropriately in those bodies concerned with establishing and monitoring standards. This means that the involvement of the public must be embedded at every level in the structures of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI), and the soon to be established National Patient Safety Agency. The public must also be involved in the development of National Service Frameworks. What must be made clear is the crucial role played by involving the public. Not only does it ensure that the standards of care meet the needs and expectations of the public, it also serves to ensure that the public can trust in the system.

22 We note particularly the efforts of NICE to involve the public. A recent paper on the patient's voice states:

`In the past, patient representatives in guidelines working groups have sometimes been expected to provide little more than passive co-operation within a clinically dominated process. The Institute's aims for patient participation in guideline development should be much bolder.' [11]

We agree. We would add that while NICE perhaps understandably talks of being `bolder', to us it is not a question of boldness, but of doing what is right. There must be, in short, an unstinting commitment on the part of organisations in the NHS to engage with the public and patients, to involve them, to listen, to maintain a dialogue and to be responsive to what they have to say.

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Footnotes

[11] `Patients' voices: Achieving a patient and carer focus for the Institute's work'. National Institute for Clinical Excellence, 2000. www.nice.org.uk