Clause 10 - Establishment of Patients' Forums
Health and Social Care Bill
6:00 pm
Mr Desmond Swayne (New Forest West, Conservative)
I have a question, which follows on from what the hon. Member for Isle of Wight has said. We are told that the membership for the patients forums is to be drawn from local patient and voluntary groups—he is right to point out the importance of the voluntary groups—of which the league of friends will be one. Half of them will be drawn from the respondents to the trusts' annual surveys. The explanatory notes go on to say that members of the public who will be appointed to the patients forums must have been treated, or still are being treated, by an NHS trust or by a PCT.
I suspect that a significant portion of those being treated by trusts are children or are elderly and infirm. It is most appropriate that those who care for these patients should be allowed to sit on the forums, because they will have a great insight into the problems of, and the services provided by, those trusts. The requirement that those serving on the forum must have been recently treated or still being treated, leaves out a whole category of people who would be very useful to the forum.