Patient Council

The Patient Council started in 2002 as an initiative on the part of Broomfield Hospital. The Council currently has 12 members, who are unpaid volunteers with wide career and patient experience backgrounds. They have volunteered to help make a difference with their views and experiences of patients and their relatives.

The Trust appreciates the valuable support given by the Patient Council and the improvements they recommend are a key factor for future developments to improve the patient experience.

The Council works closely with a range of hospital staff at all levels, to ensure that a good quality of service is provided, continually, to all patients during their journey through the hospital.

Council members also represent the patient’s views as members of a wide range of Trust committees and working groups including Blood Transfusion, procedural documentation and policy review (DRAG) and Infection Control.  The Patient Council is represented on a new panel of staff and volunteers, entitled the Patient Information Group (PIG), whose role is to review all new Patient leaflets that are written by hospital staff. When the panel has reviewed and accepted a leaflet it can then be given to patients.

Broomfield 2010 saw the opening of the new building and the transfer of the St Johns Hospital services to their new accommodation. Major moves also took place with A&E and outpatient departments taking up new and improved facilities in the new building. As part of this project, the Patient Council was heavily involved in committees and working groups, representing the “patient's view”. During the project, it was discovered that the system of maps and information explaining how a patient gets to their clinic or ward was not fit for purpose. A Wayfinding Group, including Patients Council members, was set up and, over time, and with the help of consultants, the system of wayfinding for the hospital has been significantly improved. This included new names for wards and a new signage system. A new hopper bus was introduced to take Patients to remote parts of the hospital including the Linden Centre, Crystal centre & the Eye clinic.

Patient Council members are regularly involved in surveying patients and obtaining views and visiting wards on a regular basis.

The results of the surveys are collated and used to provide anecdotal evidence on the patient’s perceived standard of the service being provided by the Trust and to suggest improvements where appropriate.

The Council meets on a monthly basis to discuss their ongoing activities, together with future plans, and to provide the Trust with an opportunity to keep members updated and informed about operational issues and plans. We have presentations by senior staff on a wide range of subjects, which gives the opportunity for members to make comments and suggestions and to ask questions and learn more about running a large organisation. We are supported by The Chief Nurse, Deputy Director of Nursing and the Trust Secretary.

It should be noted that the Patients Council has no direct role to play in resolving individual queries and complaints, this is operationally managed by the Patients Advice and Liaison Service (PALS). However, the Patients Council receives quarterly PALS statistics that are discussed at the meeting to put a patients point of view on any systemic weaknesses that may or may not be present.

The Chair of the Patient Council, Mrs Maureen Hindle, is responsible for reporting to The Trust Board and Patient Safety Meeting.

Being a member of the Patient Council allows people to undertake other volunteer work at the hospital, for instance, one of our members, Tony Little, is managing a charity project where Broomfield Hospital is developing links with the main teaching hospital in Lusaka, Zambia.

Any member of the public who feels they have the skills, enthusiasm and the time, and would like to become a member of the Patients Council, Please email Maureen Hindle at maureen.hindle12@btinternet.com in the first instance.