New public involvement panel to inform CLAHRC West research

CLAHRC West has a new public involvement panel to advise us on our projects that don’t relate to a specific patient group. We are supporting a number of projects which focus on health systems issues rather than specific conditions, for example evaluations of the use of GP services in emergency departments or the use of a national early warning score in non-hospital settings.

Public involvement on such projects doesn’t draw on a particular patient or service user group with relevant personal experience. So to provide a public perspective on these projects we have set up a new health systems panel.

Panel members were recruited through our patient and public involvement partner People in Health West of England. They included people who have a range of health conditions or carer experience, public involvement or engagement experience, and an understanding of how the NHS system works.

We had a lot of interest in this involvement opportunity and we recruited 12 members in March. The panel includes people with experience of working as a school governor, in community outreach, in the civil service and as an independent advocate. Their involvement experience includes working with clinical commissioning groups, Healthwatch and in the previous Local Involvement Networks (LINKs), as well as involvement in the local mental health trust and independent mental health network.

Members’ voluntary work includes with the elderly and people with learning disabilities, human embryology and assisted conception, and being a Care Quality Commission ‘expert by experience’. We are delighted to have a panel with such a broad range of experience to bring a variety of perspectives to our projects.

The panel has met twice since March and both meetings have been very helpful to our researchers and project teams. We meet in the early evenings for an hour and a half. Researchers provide relevant information and we aim to support a reflective discussion and encourage expression of different views and perspectives. We will be reflecting on this kind of involvement with our panel members and see this group as a great resource for CLAHRC West.