§ Mr. ColmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will introduce legislation to rename patients' forums as patient and public involvement forums. [140083]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonNo. The Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health decided to re-brand patients' forums as patient and public involvement forums to help the public understand their roles. There is no statutory bar to their doing this.
§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will estimate the(a) number and (b) rate of vacancies within patients' forums on the latest date for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement on progress to meet the minimum number of staff in each patients' forum. [139863]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonAs at 19 November 2003 the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health (CPPIH) had received 4,254 applications from people to fill the 4,018 patients' forum places available for 1 December 2003. This is the total for the minimum number of seven members needed for all 574 forums in England. Inevitably some forums have attracted greater interest than others. However, CPPIH is still recruiting and applications are being received throughout the country on a daily basis.
Patients' forums cannot employ staff because they are unincorporated organisations. However arrangements have been in place since September for each patients' forum to receive staff support from local network providers.