Summary minute of the Future Forum Working Group on the NHS Constitution meeting held on Monday 17 September 2012, Richmond House, 79 Whitehall, London SW1A 2NS. The meeting focused on: patient redress; promoting awareness for the public; views from the NHS Commissioning Board; use of patient data.
members attending
Professor Steve Field (Chair)
Dr Charles Alessi
Dr Jocelyn Cornwell
Ms Jane Cummings
Dr Vin Diwaker
Dr Hamish Meldrum
Mr Jeremy Taylor
Mr Stephen Thornton
Ms Paula Vasco-Knight
Department of Health
Ms Tabitha Jay
Dr Stephen Robinson
Mr James MacDougall
Mr Kelvin Lees
Ms Claire McGinley
Mr Philip Wainwright
Mr Peter Knight
Mr David Knight
Mr James Doughty
Ms Karen Thomson
Mr Chris Bostock
other officials
Mr Monty Keuneman – NHS Commissioning Board
Ms Sandra Eismann – NHS Commissioning Board
Mr Keith Holden – NHS Commissioning Board
Ms Justine Antill – DH Legal Services
I. welcome and introductions
1. The Chair welcomed members to the seventh meeting of the NHS Future Forum Working Group on the NHS Constitution.
2. Apologies were received from Mss Sally Brearley, Christina McAnea and Jo Lenaghan, Drs Jennifer Harries, and Vivienne McVeigh, Mr Howard Catton, Mr Jason Stamp, Mr Ciaran Devane, Mr Peter Hay, Mr Ash Soni, Sir Keith Pearson and Professor Mike Cooke CBE.
3. The Chair set out the purpose of the meeting, which was to focus on how to raise awareness of the Constitution, how to give it teeth so that patients, staff and the public know who to turn to and what to do when they do not get what they are entitled to expect.
4. The Chair proposed that the next meeting on 16 October should focus on working through what the group’s letter of advice to the Secretary of State should say. The group agreed with this proposal.
II. giving the Constitution teeth
5. Following on from discussions in earlier meetings about what could be done if patients do not get what they should under the NHS Constitution, Department officials gave a presentation with regard to redress. This included the legal basis of the Constitution, the position of the Constitution in the new system and ways to help patients navigate the system where they have concerns. This was followed by a discussion about how the Constitution can be made clearer about where patients should go to seek redress and about how bodies in the new system will be held to account for promoting and/or upholding the Constitution.
III. awareness and embedding
6. The Secretariat provided a summary of the views they had so far heard from forum members, stakeholders and the public on how to raise awareness. A representative from NHS Communications then gave an overview of the Departments original plans to raise awareness for the public. The group gave their views on what they saw as the main areas on which to focus with regard to raising awareness and discussed the key points they would like to make around awareness in their letter of advice to Secretary of State.
IV. NHS Commissioning Board – duty to promote
7. Representatives from the NHS Commissioning Board gave an overview of their early thoughts on how it is planning to fulfil its duty to promote the Constitution. The group then fed back their ideas on the practical steps the Board should take to fulfil this duty.
V. final remarks and AOB
8. The Chair thanked members for their participation and reminded them that the next and final meeting of the group would be on 16 October. He reminded members that an optional session on information and research would take place following the meeting and invited those interested to remain for it.
VI. information and research (optional session)
9. DH officials led a discussion on how to reflect appropriately the protection and use of patient data in the NHS Constitution.