Patients must be given greater say in running of NHS

Primary care trusts should give patients a greater say in the
delivery of health services, according to a report by the think
tank New Economics Foundation.

Patient involvement in the running of the NHS at every level can
have a dramatic effect on recovery, budgets and on the intractable
problems of public health, the report says.

Feedback from patients is essential in the planning of health
services, the report comments. Health targets should be simplified
and redefined so they encourage rather than exclude participation,
it says.

The report urges primary care trusts to start experimenting to
find out how far it is possible to go handing budgetary control
over to local patients, and in other lay-led management, so that
patients can be encouraged to set the local health agenda.

‘Putting Life Back into our Health Services’ is available from
www.neweconomics.org