Table of contents

PPI Resources

Turning Involvement into Everyday Practice
The NHS Centre for Involvement compiled this Organisational Development project with The South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust. The report focuses on the positive approach to Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) that the Trust has; there are four recommendations for future development: developing an integrated and coherent involvement strategy; ensuring that the right policies are in place to support involvement and collaborative working; building capacity by integrating involvement into staff training and development processes; and establishing clear arrangements for project planning and management.

A snapshot report of the Patient Experience at Withington Community Hospital
Published in November 2006 by the Manchester Health Watchdog (the newly merged Primary Care Patient and Public Involvement Forums in Manchester), this report is based on an outpatient survey carried out at the new Withington Communtiy Hospital in 2005. The Forum made recommendations to the then South Manchester PCT and the Trust has used the report to obtain additional funding to make changes to the hospital based on the patient experience recorded in the report. These changes include improving the shelter for wheelchairs which are kept outside, putting an information desk at the front of the entrance, lowering information racks for patients in wheelchairs and the Forum members are currently working with the Trust to address issues about the signage in the hospital to the many departments.

This report also includes the response from the PCT and demonstrates that partnership working with lay volunteers can make a difference to the patient experience. Copies are available from Val Bayliss-Brideaux, Manchester Health Watchdog Co-ordinator: val@blackhealthagency.org, tel. 0161 214 3967

PPI report on breast care services
Members of South Manchester Primary Care and Hospitals PPI Forums have compiled a report of patient experiences of using Breast Care Services in South Manchester. 'My Breasts, My Care' is based on the responses of 45 men and women who responded to the patient experience survey at the Nightingale Centre, Withington Hospital in October/November 2005 - and it shows a real insight into how they want their care to be delivered. For more information, contact ppim@blackhealthagency.org.uk

Producing a centrally co-ordinated GP newsletter for patients
by Roxana Summers, Community and Patient Involvement Manager at East Leeds PCT

"In East Leeds (PCT area) we have just emailed the third issue of a 'patient' newsletter with up-to-date, evidence-based advice for the waiting room at GP surgeries. The contents of the issues is decided by a small editorial team composed of two or three practice managers, a public health manager and the PPI manager working together. The Public Health Resource Officer researches the information and circulates to the network of PH Directors and the editorial team. Requests for articles are taken from the public but the main avenue is Practice Managers.

"The template is the simplest on Word so all GPs can view it on screen and print it off. There are three versions of the newsletter so Practice Managers can add as much or as little of their own news as they wish to. The least amount of effort means just adding their surgery details and the most is completely changing the second sheet of paper to add their own news. The newsletter is edited four times a year (seasonal messages can therefore be accommodated quite nicely). Most GPs are now using the newsletter partly or in its entirety."

Introduction to the PPI Forums' annual reviews summary 2004-05

Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Forums began operation in December 2003, run purely by volunteers who wanted to make a difference in their community. They were established by the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH), to place patients at the centre of everything the NHS does.

There are 572 PPI Forums, one for every NHS Trust, Primary Care Trust and Foundation Trust in England. The structure is designed to give each Trust, an independent ‘critical friend’ who works closely with them, but represents the public’s
and patients’ views.

Members of each PPI Forum develop their own work plans, deciding which local health issues are investigated and which services are monitored. They provide patients and the public with the means to influence decision making in health, and to give people the chance to contribute to shaping health services. Their work includes gathering views about the quality of services, discovering gaps in services, and suggesting how to improve the experience of people using services. Even in their first full year of activity, it is already evident that PPI Forums have begun to make real progress in improving health and healthcare services for their local communities.

The CPPIH provides support for PPI Forums, ensuring that their voice is heard in health matters. Voluntary sector and not for profit organisations were contracted by the CPPIH to provide local Forum support which includes administrative duties. There are PPI Forums for Mental Health and Ambulance Trusts, as well as Primary Care Trusts and Hospitals. So wide-ranging is Forums’ work that CPPIH has produced separate annual reports for each of these sectors, to provide stakeholders with a clearer understanding of their work. Copies of these reports are available on the CPPIH website.

Forums’ public profile has been raised, through many press and broadcast media opportunities, making stakeholders aware of benefits they bring to the people they represent. PPI Forums’ remit is wider than making recommendations about health services. They monitor quality, and also look at health aspects of social care, transport or housing. The 4,840 Forum members have looked at a wide range of issues over the last year. Health facilities, infection control, GP services, transport and parking were the top themes chosen by Forums to concentrate on.