The role of patients and the public, and how to be involved

What

Patient & Public Involvement (PPI ) means bringing together a whole range of individuals in many different ways so that they can work together to help shape cancer services

Who 

Individuals who have had a diagnosis of cancer; their family members and friends; members of organisations working in cancer; community and minority groups as well as members of the public interested in cancer services.

How

Working in partnership with all those involved in providing cancer services.  This can mean being involved in the regional forum; working on ongoing projects and patient audits; attending disease specific tumour group meetings and being available for general consultation on pressing issues as and when they arise. 

Why

There are lots of reasons why PPI is worth the effort. These include the people who are involved finding that they

• have an improvement in their health and their lives in general
• have more services available to them
• are more inclined to use these services…which, in turn, leads to their
• having better outcomes for their health overall 
• Since public services are paid for by people they should then be shaped by them

Interested in becoming involved?

If so, why not join the Patient & Public Involvement Forum. Contact Janis McCulla on 028 9056 5860 or email j.mcculla@nican.n-i.nhs.uk.  Janis will be happy to discuss this in more detail or arrange to meet with you.

Click here for more information on the Public and Patient Involvement Forum including their work so far and future meetings.