DH to hold regional public consultations

The Department of Health is to hold a series of regional and national public public meetings, the results of which will contribute to the White Paper on improving community health and care services. 

The events, under the banner Your Health, Your Care, Your Say, will be run by Opinion Leader Research (OLR). The outcomes of the regional events will feed into a national event to be held in Birmingham on 29 October.

The details of the regional events are:

• Gateshead - 14 September
• Leicester - 24 September
• London - 29 September
• Plymouth - 10 October

The Department promises that: 'Between 50 and 100 people from across those regions will participate in the events and 1,000 people will take part in the national event in Birmingham.  As a result of the engagement exercise more than 100,000 people will be invited to put forward their ideas.  If people cannot attend the event they will still be able to express their views via an online questionnaire.'

• For more information, the Department have published an enquiry line number, 020 7210 4850

In addition to the OLR run events, the public will also have the opportunity to take part in local sessions to be run by NHS, local government and voluntary organisations. The Department has already kicked off this process with an engagement event for stakeholders in July to discuss how best to run these sessions. The White Paper is due to be published at the turn of the year.

This White Paper consultation is, according to the Department 'very different to the approach normally taken but is part of the Department of Health's commitment to listening to and engaging with the public, patients and staff about what they think of the NHS and social care, and what changes they want to see in the future'. 

As part of that commitment the Department is publishing summaries of opinion polls and media evaluation on the Freedom of Information section of its website. These can be found here.