Patient voice
- There are over 500 members on the Hearty Voices register and 155
of them have now been
fully trained. - If you are interested in joining Hearty Voices, please call 020 7725 0690.
Patient voice
It is crucial that patients have a say in their own treatment and how the services they need are provided. Patients and carers have a wealth of experience that can help health professionals create a health service that truly meets their needs.
BHF is also seeking to ensure that patients have a say in how the charity develops its heart help activities.
Action
The British Heart Foundation’s Hearty Voices programme aims to develop a nationwide network of heart patient and carer representatives working with health professionals to bring about positive change in the way treatment and services are designed, delivered and evaluated. Representatives are trained and fully supported by the BHF and receive a bi-monthly magazine with news on developments in NHS policy and care, heart health information and opportunities to get involved.
Hearty Voices has been running successfully in England and Wales since 2002 and 2005/06 saw a further expansion of the scheme when the BHF teamed up with another charity, the Chest, Heart and Stroke Association Scotland.
Currently, patients from ethnic minority backgrounds are not suitably represented in patient and public involvement forums, including Hearty Voices. In order to develop a truly patient-led NHS, it is important that every community’s voice is heard. So, in November 2005 the BHF began a three-year outreach programme to recruit to Hearty Voices heart patients and carers from the South Asian community.
“If the BHF is to provide the best and most appropriate advice, care and support for heart patients, their views and involvement are vital. It is only by working together that we can achieve this goal and we’ve commissioned a report on patient involvement in the BHF by the King’s Fund to help us get there quickly.” Dr Mike Knapton, BHF’s Director of Prevention and Care, talking about the importance of involving patients.
The Patient Advisory Group was established to advise the BHF on a wide range of matters, and take the voice of heart patients into other forums on behalf of the charity. Membership was drawn from within Hearty Voices and aimed to create a mix of gender, age, ethnicity, location, condition and experience. Work is still required to develop the group, but Chairman John Walsh said: “The Patient Advisory Group has made a reasonably successful start ... and now looks forward to a productive and satisfying future.”
Impact
Hearty Voices and the Patient Advisory Group are making significant contributions towards a patient-centred and patient-led system of healthcare for the future.
David Thomson shows us just how much patient involvement can achieve. David joined Hearty Voices after a heart attack and bypass surgery in 2002. Since then he has helped develop a website for heart attack patients for a BHF-supported charity called Dipex (the Database of Individual Patient Experiences), and has become a member of a hospitals forum set up by the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health.
Most recently, David has become a patient member of a Guideline Development Group set up by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to give guidance to health professionals, patients and carers to help them make decisions on appropriate treatment and healthcare following a heart attack.
Next steps
Hearty Voices will continue to recruit new members and expand to cover the whole of the UK. In 2006/07 we aim to run 20 Hearty Voices training days, two of which are specifically designed for carers. We will also aim to introduce an annual survey to assess the impact Hearty Voices representatives are having on the NHS.
The initial training day of the Hearty Voices outreach programme will take place in Manchester in July 2006. It will encourage patients from South Asian communities to get involved and offer them BHF training and support.
We aim to involve more people across the whole range of BHF activity, and will be actively recruiting for more diversity in the Patient Advisory Group, especially targeting ethnic minorities and women.
In a significant move for the charity’s governance, two patient representatives will be sitting on the BHF’s Council. John Walsh, Chair of the Patient Advisory Group, and another patient will have input at the very highest level into the way the charity is run.