Final Report > Chapter 28: Public Involvement Through Empowerment > What is the agenda for public involvement? > The operation and delivery of services

The operation and delivery of services

14 As regards public involvement in the operation of the NHS, two concerns are central: safety in the care of patients and high quality in the delivery of the service. What we contemplate here is effective involvement of the public, at national and local levels, both in setting and reviewing the standards to be met regarding the safety and quality of care, and in monitoring the observance of those standards. In the past, these have been seen as matters solely for healthcare professionals on which, given the technical nature of the issues, the `lay' public were thought to have little to offer. The issues are not only technical. Indeed, if the quality of the care given to patients is to be taken seriously, there are some matters on which only patients are qualified to speak, for example, the extent to which any particular service accords with the needs of the patient. It was the NHS's current weakness in this regard, its unresponsiveness to the interests and needs of the public, which contributed towards the NHS being ranked below a number of European countries in the World Health Organisation's recent analysis of national healthcare services. [7] The views of patients and the public are relevant not only to the standards to be observed by healthcare professionals; but also to the standards and performance of hospitals. We have already proposed, in Chapter 27, a system of validation of trusts. Clearly, as elsewhere, the public must be involved in this process.

Footnotes

[7] `World Health Report 2000. Health Systems: Improving Performance'. The UK healthcare system was ranked number 19, compared on a range of factors with the healthcare systems of 191 countries worldwide. www.who.int