The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 was given Royal assent. The Act was designed to tighten partnership arrangements between local councils and other public bodies, and deliver closer integration of health and social care. It placed duties on councils and named partners to co-operate in drawing up and having regard to local area agreement targets. Partners included primary care trusts, youth offending teams, police authorities, and local probation boards. Existing independent local patient and public involvement forums would be abolished.
Source: Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, Department for Communities and Local Government, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Text of Act | DH press release | NHS press release | Involve press release | Community Care report
Date: 2007-Oct
A report gave a comprehensive assessment of the government's efforts to create a patient-led National Health Service. The need to listen to and communicate better with patients was an area that the government had repeatedly committed itself to act on, and was a fundamental part of its reform strategy: but good intentions were not always delivered in practice.
Source: Sheila Leatherman and Kim Sutherland, Patient and Public Experience in the NHS, Health Foundation (020 7257 8000)
Links: Report | Health Foundation press release
Date: 2007-Sep
A report said that the National Health Service was still far from being patient-centred, and the key future challenge for reform was to engage patients fully in managing their own care and treatment. Funding and reforms had brought almost no improvement to patient engagement in the previous five years, therefore failing to secure important benefits for health outcomes and for the future sustainability of the NHS.
Source: Nick Richards and Angela Coulter, Is the NHS Becoming More Patient-centred? Trends from the national surveys of NHS patients in England 2002-07, Picker Institute Europe (01865 208100)
Links: Report | Picker Institute press release | BBC report | Guardian report
Date: 2007-Sep
An article drew on the first-known review of user-controlled research to explore the potential contribution of service-user knowledge and research to the development of evidence-based policy and practice in health and social care.
Source: Peter Beresford, 'The role of service user research in generating knowledge-based health and social care: from conflict to contribution', Evidence & Policy, Volume 3 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2007-Aug
A new book examined the challenges involved in enabling people who were 'experts by experience' to participate in developing health and social care services and in social work education.
Source: Mo McPhail, Service User and Carer Involvement : Beyond good intentions, Dunedin Academic Press (0131 473 2397)
Links: Summary
Date: 2007-Jul
A report summarized the findings of a series of seminars on the theme of health and accountability. It examined the experiences of local government health scrutiny, the wider patient and public involvement framework, and the inspection and regulation regime; and considered their contribution to democracy and accountability.
Source: Fiona Campbell, The Anatomy of Accountability: How the National Health Service answers to the people, Centre for Public Scrutiny (020 7296 6595)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Jun
The government published a progress report on the implementation of patient choice in the National Health Service since it was introduced at the start of 2006, focusing on the experiences of patients and staff. The majority of patients referred for planned treatment reported a discussion about choice of hospitals and clinics with their family doctor.
Source: Choice Matters: 2007?8 - Putting patients in control, Department of Health (08701 555455)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Jun
An article examined a project (in a Glasgow housing estate) which used participatory action research to involve a deprived community in improving the quality of local primary care services. Although successful in creating a partnership between academic researchers and lay researchers, and increasing participation by local people in evaluating services, the impact of the study in terms of immediate action taken over specific issues was 'modest'.
Source: Peter Cawston, Stewart Mercer and Rosaline Barbour, 'Involving deprived communities in improving the quality of primary care services: does participatory action research work?', BMC Health Services Research, Volume 7
Date: 2007-Jun
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on patient and public involvement in the National Health Service. It said that its aim was for user and public involvement to be a mainstream activity - one which health and social care commissioners, providers and regulators perceived as a powerful means by which services would be improved to meet the needs of local people.
Source: Government Response to the Health Committee?s Report on Patient and Public Involvement in the NHS, Cm 7128, Department of Health, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response | MPs report
Date: 2007-Jun
A report said that primary care trusts were not ready for the new challenges of engaging the public and patients in local commissioning decisions.
Source: Alison Chisholm, Don Redding, Peter Cross and Angela Coulter, Patient and Public Involvement in PCT Commissioning: A survey of primary care trusts, Picker Institute Europe (01865 208100)
Links: Report
Date: 2007-Jun
A new book examined the practice of patient participation in a variety of different healthcare settings.
Source: Sarah Collins, Nicky Britten, Johanna Ruusuvuori and Andrew Thompson (eds.), Patient Participation in Health Care Consultations: Qualitative perspectives, Open University Press (01280 823388)
Links: Summary
Date: 2007-May
A report by a committee of MPs said that patient and public involvement had the potential to play a key role in both the National Health Service and social care services, by bringing about service improvement and improving public confidence. But there was a danger that the new local involvement networks would attempt to take on far too much and undertake work which was best done by others.
Source: Patient and Public Involvement in the NHS, Third Report (Session 2006-07), HC 278, House of Commons Health Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | NHS Confederation press release
Date: 2007-Apr
The government published a framework designed to assist organizations across the National Health Service to use a human rights-based approach to help improve the way services were delivered.
Source: Human Rights in Healthcare: A framework for local action, Department of Health (08701 555455)
Links: Framework
Date: 2007-Mar
An article reported on a systematic review of the empirically based evaluation literature relating to patient and public involvement in health services.
Source: Norma Daykin, David Evans, Christina Petsoulas and Adrian Sayers, 'Evaluating the impact of patient and public involvement initiatives on UK health services: a systematic review', Evidence & Policy, Volume 3 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2007-Jan
A report examined the present and future of involvement in health - including the wide variety of activities going on in the public, private, and voluntary sector to involve patients and the public in the National Health Service.
Source: Edward Andersson, Jonathan Tritter and Richard Wilson (eds.), Healthy Democracy: The future of involvement in health and social care, Involve (020 7632 0120) and NHS National Centre for Involvement
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2007-Jan
An article examined user involvement in public services. Far from enabling the delivery of high-quality integrated services that truly reflected the interests of existing and future users, these policies represented the further commodification of basic human needs and welfare.
Source: Stephen Cowden and Gurnam Singh, 'The ?user?: friend, foe or fetish?: a critical exploration of user involvement in health and social care', Critical Social Policy, Volume 27 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2007-Jan
