People power praised at engagement event

Keynote speaker Lord Victor Adebowale issued a rallying call about the power and importance of the voice of patients in designing services at the Trust’s first public and patient engagement conference.

Lord Adebowale, who is Chief Executive of the social enterprise Turning Point and a Non-Executive Director of NHS England, said: “The design of a service can only be truly understood by the people it serves.”

He defined four rules of engagement – listening, transferring power to patients, designing services with users in mind, and understanding that the success or otherwise of the outcome is defined by those who use a service and not the organisation that provides it.

More than 100 delegates, including staff from Guy’s and St Thomas’, local voluntary sector organisations, and patients and members of the public who give their time to get involved in shaping our services, attended the Involvement to Impact event on Tuesday 8 December.

The event at St Thomas’ Hospital aimed to share learning about, and inspire good practice in, patient and public engagement. A marketplace showcased best practice examples from health and care services provided by the Trust and local partners, while seminars allowed delegates to hear about engagement models and strategies from other sectors.

Representatives from Healthwatch Lambeth and Healthwatch Southwark supported the event and spoke about their role in engaging patients, carers and the wider community in helping to continually improve local NHS and social care services.

The Trust’s patient and public engagement team, who hosted the event, used the opportunity to launch the ‘PPE Hub’ – an online tool to support staff who want to involve patients and the public in the design and development of services. 

Trust Chairman Sir Hugh Taylor presented the Involvement to Impact Awards at the end of the day. The winners were:

Involvement to Impact Award

Winners: NHS Southwark Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

This award was open to local NHS and social care partners, including community voluntary sector organisations. The judges, who included Trust staff, commissioners and Healthwatch colleagues, were impressed by how the ‘Developing a healthy weight service’ project used patient experience data, and the wide range of different groups who have been engaged using different methods. There was a strong thread of engagement at all stages and it was clear to see how learning informs the overall project.

Trust Team Award for the Best Use of Patient Engagement and Experience

Joint Winners: Postnatal Ward staff & Community Speech and Language Therapy Services, Evelina London Children’s Healthcare

This award was open to all Trust services and the judges were so impressed by both teams that they made them joint winners. Both teams have shown how listening to patients and working with them can make genuine improvements to the patient experience.