People are at the heart of everything we do in developing and improving healthcare in the North West Coast. Only by listening to and learning from the experiences, views and ideas of patients, their families and carers, and the public can we ensure our work is meeting the needs of the 4.1 million people in our area.
Ensuring people’s views are heard is essential for developing and delivering better healthcare services. We encourage everyone in our region to find out more about the work of Health Innovation North West Coast and have their say on how we spread innovations and improvements.
We are working with patients on a project to reduce pressures on our region's endoscopy services. The project, known as Cytoprime, involves patients swallowing a tiny sponge in a capsule on a thread which is used to collect cells from the gullet. As part of this project we have produced a general information leaflet and a patient information leaflet.
Youth forum to test innovations
Young people aged 13 to 20 are invited to join a forum at which cutting edge innovations are demonstrated, for them to try out and provide feedback.
Meetings are held quarterly and are usually held online using Zoom.
If you are interested in joining a meeting and seeing some of the latest apps and tech designed to improve health and care for young people, please email debbie.parkinson@healthinnovationnwc.nhs.uk.
How you can have your say on your healthcare
- Apply for a place on our Patient Involvement and Engagement Senate (PIES), which provides the public perspective on all our work
- Attend events alongside health and care staff, academics and industry representatives
- Participate in surveys and consultations
- Sign up to our newsletter to receive regular information about Health Innovation North West Coast
- Follow our social media channels - Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and LinkedIn
Ensuring all voices are considered in new ways of working
The NHS constitution states that the patient will be at the heart of everything this NHS does.
The following tools and guides will support you ensuring that patients and citizens are partners in the design of new services and ways of working:
- National Voices – a coalition of health and social care charities in England.
- Institute of patient centred design
- Patient Centred Culture by Design
- Experience based design - using patient and staff experience to design better health and care services.
- NHS Citizen is a national programme to give the public a say on healthcare matters and influence NHS England decision making.
- NHS Public Voice is about ensuring that the views of patients, carers and the public are heard and are able to influence NHS England’s decision-making and sits under NHS Citizen.
- The Patient Voices programme was in 2003, and aims to facilitate the telling and the hearing of some of the unwritten and unspoken stories of ordinary people for those who devise and implement strategy in health and social care.
- INVOLVE was established in 1996 and is part of, and funded by, the National Institute for Health Research, to support active public involvement in NHS.
Patient involvement in research.
The UKCRC is promoting active patient and public involvement (PPI) as part of developing a new environment for clinical research through several activities.
Each local Healthwatch is part of its local community and works in partnership with other local organisations. The Healthwatch network is made of up of local Healthwatch across each of the 152 local authority areas and Healthwatch England, the national body.
Involvement of patients in NICE guidance.
An independent site about your experiences of UK health services, good or bad. We pass your stories to the right people to make a difference.
How you can get more involved
Residents in Cheshire, Merseyside, Lancashire or South Cumbria who would like to learn more about getting involved, can email our Patient and Public Involvement Lead, Debbie Parkinson.