On 7 Oct 2015, we hosted our largest engagement event since the launch of our innovative patient and public empowerment strategy.

Over 70 patients, carers, voluntary sector representatives and staff attended the ‘Voices in Health’ Participation Community event, to hear about our achievements so far, and plans for the future.

As the largest community healthcare provider in Bristol, we continually work to ensure that patients feel involved not only in decisions about their healthcare, but also in decisions about improvements to our services. Our ‘Voices in Health’ event included presentations from the Picker Institute Europe, Optimum Health, and our own staff in areas such as how to get the most out of your GP, the impact of volunteers, and how patient feedback drives service improvement, many of which were developed and presented alongside volunteers and our patients. Our attendees also had the chance to see an engaging performance from the Misfits, a theatre and social group led by people with learning disabilities.

“You demonstrated a very open and listening attitude.”

The event also gave us the opportunity to launch our patient and public empowerment review of the year. The review includes all of the changes and improvements we have implemented in the past year to ensure that the patient is always at the centre of what we do. To read our review, click here. If you have any comments, you can email us.

 

“I enjoyed the Misfits, and hearing from patients. The day was well structured, informative and innovative.”

“Excellent structured day; it was good to hear carers mentioned throughout the day in the same breath as patients.”

“Hosting events such as Voices in Health is an important way for us to not only share what we have achieved, but also gather even more ideas about what we can do over the coming months,” said Matthew Areskog, Patient and Public Empowerment Lead. “We also had some fantastic speakers on the day, which led to some great feedback from our attendees. I look forward to another exciting year ahead, and hope to be able to share even more of our work this time next year.”

Bridget Hopwood, our keynote speaker from the Picker Institute Europe, said, “I found the day really interesting and enjoyable – it was so nice to see patients and staff all working together during the workshop lessons, and the joint presentations were really inspiring.”

Feedback for the event from our delegates was overwhelming positive; most importantly, delegates told us they believe we meaningfully involve patients, carers and the public in improving community health services (with a score of 4.75 out of five).

We would like to thank everyone who came along on the day, a special thank you also goes to all our speakers. Below we have included copies of the presentations from the day:

Picker Institute Keynote
PPE Strategy Year 1 Review
Real-time feedback
Shared Decision Making
Volunteering
Healthwatch
Developing patients as leaders