South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SCAS) have established a new Patient Panel designed to increase the involvement of patients, as well as their families and carers, in improving and shaping the future of our services.
The panel will be made up of patients, family members or carers of patients who have used SCAS services, as well as representatives from voluntary groups and partner organisations.
It will offer the Patient Panel volunteers the opportunity to gain insight and have a say on service developments and improvements, across our 999 emergency services (both call centre and operationally), Non-Emergency Patient Transport Service (NEPTS) and NHS 111.
Within the Patient Panel, we are initially focusing on two tiers of involvement:
- Influence – Participants can take an ongoing, active role in meetings and committees usually held online and, on occasion (with prior notice given), at our sites including our headquarters in Bicester or Otterbourne to enhance decision-making and discussions.
- Co-production – Participants will be invited to meetings and discussions groups and can contribute by providing opinion, experience and expectations to inform improvements.
Within the co-production role, our focus is Mental Health and Learning Disabilities patients, and we plan to expand to other co-production groups over the next year.
We will also be expanding the Patient Panel to include a Consult tier of participation. This will be the most flexible and require the least time commitment where volunteers can participate as and when they are available. This will involve responding to surveys, giving feedback on strategies, initiatives and publications and participants providing their thoughts on events and campaigns on an occasional basis.