Engagement in 2012: a balancing act amidst the sound and fury

Here at MAC we always like to say that the best time to engage with people is when they can see the point of engaging, when there is something to fight for or against.   Number One in the Reasons to Engage Top Ten is “Taking It Away”.   We see this in the NHS – the mere mention that... 
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Rx: Urgent -get out of the Dark Ages

Future Forum 2 – not a sequel but the next round of recommendations from the great and the good that began last summer – has reported, with further insights on integrated services (along with information, by far the most important theme), education and training for the healthcare workforce, information... 
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Integration Holy Grail could be wishful thinking

Integrated services reflecting individual needs and marshalling skills and resources across the health and care sectors for the right people in the right place at the right time.  That’s what we should have now after 60+ years of a nationally funded health service.  But we don’t have it... 
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Top Site, Top Dogs, Top of the Agenda? Everyone’s a winner.

Like most local community groups, the Clissold Park User Group (CPUG) often struggles to get people to understand its role.  As the current Chair of the group I can see that the higher our profile and the more professional we look, the less people think we are really a community group.  If you... 
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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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Whose consortium is it anyway? – our take on lay involvement in authorisation

How can local lay people be engaged with the authorisation process for commissioning consortia?  The Bill is silent on this point (which speaks volumes in itself), so we thought we’d fly a kite for our thoughts  on how the National Commissioning Board (NCB) authorisation process with consortia... 
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LINks to Health Watch – hey presto?

Does it matter that England’s Local Involvement Networks (LINks) are in a transition period lasting at least twelve months to turn themselves into shiny, new organisations called Local Health Watch? Assuming we can avoid a re-run of discontinuity, demoralisation and loss of organisational memory... 
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RCGP gags patients and public

We did warn people that the NHS was too important to be left to the doctors.  Now with the publication of the Royal College of General Practitioners’ memorandum of advice (aka demands) to the Prime Minister about what must be changed (or else?) in the Health and Social Care Bill, we see more... 
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Pause, Reflect and Improve? MAC grabs the Lansley moment

We have a plan – a 10 point plan focusing on Public Accountability and Patient Engagement in the Health and Social Care Bill.  Listening to the Prime Minister this morning on the Today programme, he talked about the label of “GP commissioning” as being misleading – echoing a... 
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Mr Lansley Sums It Up

It’s quite a trick to condense a monster Bill like the Health and Social Care one  into a single sentence, but Mr Lansley managed in the 2nd reading debate this afternoon in the House.  He stated the purpose of the Bill as  “to improve health of the people of this country and the health... 
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