There are many ways you can become more involved in your healthcare. Read on to find out more.

1.  Join a Patient Group

There are a number of ways within NHS North East Essex that you can join as a public or patient representative. For more information, contact Tricia Cassidy on 01206 286831 or email patricia.cassidy@northeastessex.nhs.uk

2.  Come along to a Board meeting and Open to Question session

Prior to Board meetings there is an Open to Question session for members of the public to raise issues with Board members. The Board meeting is held in public and there is a section for public participation, for matters relating to the Board agenda. See Public Meetings.

3.  Take part in patient surveys and consultations

The views and ideas of patients and the public enable us to improve local services. We have and do undertake a number of surveys and consultations. Thank you very much to everyone who has taken part to date. Your views are used locally to help improve local services. See the Public Consultations section for more about the issues we are currently consulting on.

4. Current developments and future plans for Patient and Public Involvement

Patient and Public Forums have now been replaced with Local Involvement Networks (LINks). These will form part of new arrangements to strengthen the voice of local people. Patient and public involvement is a two-way process. Our patient and public involvement activities will follow these key principles:

•  Be honest with patients and the public and actively involve them using a variety of methods.
•  Engagement means that important decisions are influenced by patient feedback. But patients will need to understand how difficult decisions are made and why inevitably some patient views will not be acted upon.
•  NHS North East Essex should be very honest about what is and is not possible and should only consult when there is a real opportunity for the public to influence decisions.
•  When consulting, set clear boundaries on what the choices are and how they can be influenced.
•  Patients should be able to challenge NHS North East Essex to hold providers to account for service quality and value for money.

The NHS North East Essex strategy for communicating with patients and the public can be downloaded here  Patient and Public Engagement Strategy (Adobe Acrobat - 292 Kb).

The NHS Centre for Involvement's website www.nhscentreforinvolvement.nhs.uk is a good resource for turning patient and public involvement into everyday practice.

Volunteering

Volunteers devote many thousands of hours to helping NHS North East Essex. Their help and hard work enable clinical and administration staff to use their time and professional skills more effectively.

Volunteers come from all walks of life but many are people who have taken early retirement or, conversely, people thinking of returning to work and see volunteering as a way of getting back their confidence before re-entering the workplace. 

Services and Support

• Volunteers throughout the Trust are managed from the main Voluntary Services office based at Clacton and District Hospital 
• All volunteers have an induction to their area of placement as well as a named supervisor, on-the-job training and are offered additional training if appropriate. Volunteers are also offered a place on the Trust’s induction for staff, and are issued with a photo ID badge with a volunteer’s lanyard
• Currently our volunteers throughout the Trust area contribute approximately 12,000 hours of invaluable service each year  
• Volunteers are recruited, supported and managed according to the Trust’s Policies & Procedures for Volunteers set out in the following documentPolicies and Procedures for Volunteers
• All volunteers with patient contact are Criminal Record Bureau cleared before they can begin volunteering.

We have volunteers throughout the NHS North East Essex area from Clacton & Harwich Hospitals to Cornerstone in Colchester, clinics in Harwich, Mistley and Colchester.

Our volunteers contribute to our services in a vast range of ways from the wards at the hospitals, to reception at Cornerstone, from clerical to helping the patients at lunchtime, and all areas in between. Their help and support is invaluable.

In addition we also have pets as therapy dogs with owners and dogs visiting patients on the wards.

Work experience and observation days

The voluntary services department also runs the work experience programme for NHS North East Essex. We place students from 16 years upwards on the Trident scheme together with those requesting private placements, back to work placements and students on access courses.

Work experience students are placed on wards and departments throughout NHS North East Essex for either one or two week block placements. These are approved placements and are detailed in the organisation's policy Working With Work Experience Students.

One day observation visits are negotiated for students with a definite interest in a given area of health and are on a one-off basis.

We also hold a one day Sixth Form 'Careers in Health' conference in partnership with local coastal schools.