MAC's Public Involvement Blog

Patience you patients …someone might be listening out there

Patience you patients …someone might be listening out there

In addition to working as a professional in patient and public involvement, I have recently had first hand experience of being a patient under complicated and worrying circumstances that will have serious consequences for the way I live and the future choices I have to make. This has taken me back to... 
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Request for Geek Bearing Gifts

Request for Geek Bearing Gifts

Raw Data – Tough to Chew This is what happens when geeks start to play with data and map the blogosphere. This is just showing links and connections as well as indicating apparently how much certain topic areas are addressed. I found this on a website run by a Malcolm Hurst who works for MSN and... 
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Authorisation about us, but without us

Authorisation about us, but without us

Small may be beautiful, but “size matters”. That’s is the inescapable conclusion of the news that 1 in 7 CCGs (clinical commissioning groups, formerly known as GP consortia) are too small for authorisation.  Health Service Journal reckons that 47 CCGs have fewer than 50,000 patients; some... 
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The throttling season

The throttling season

The dog days of August have been anything but torpid, and not just on the streets.  In the policy arena the Department of Health continued to tighten its grip around the throat of any meaningful patient and public involvement.   It’s the throttling season.  The most recent example was the launch... 
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J’accuse! updated – a modern approach to accountability

J’accuse! updated – a modern approach to accountability

Accountability is meaningless when the finger of suspicion and blame can move in a week from a single “rogue” reporter to the Chairman of News Corporation. In a situation where potentially all are held accountable in this random way, no one is accountable. Caroline Oliver a friend of MAC... 
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