§ Mr. Hilary BennTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if staff employed by the proposed Patient Advocacy and Liaison Service will be represented on the patient forums; and if he will make a statement. [134341]
§ Ms StuartChapter 10 of the National Health Service Plan states that half the membership of Patients Fora will be randomly drawn from respondents to trusts' annual patient surveys. The other half of the membership will comprise representatives of local patient groups and voluntary organisations.
At the moment, we are conducting a major exercise to take the views of stakeholder groups nationally and locally on the specific details of how the new arrangements set out in Chapter 10 of the NHS Plan should be set up and co-ordinated in practice. Exactly how the membership of Patients Fora will be constructed, and which local patient representative group will be involved, will be resolved as part of this exercise. A clear statement on the outcome of the exercise will be given in the new year.