The Yorkshire cancer patient forum held its second meeting on Monday 5 October. It was very well attended and friendly and although as a patient I did not know anyone it felt very welcoming.
The diverse nature of the group including the cancers suffered from was amazing. It is organised by cancer patients in our region. The meeting was at the Park Plaza Hotel and was funded by MacMillan Cancer Support who also provided a very nice lunch buffet. The aims are to improve the quality of care and ensure that the voices of patients, families and friends/carers are heard and concerns and suggestions on how this can be improved are acted upon.
The workshop concentrated on eight steps which were
- What is the problem?
- How do you know the problem exists?
- What is your evidence?
- What has been the patient/carer experience?
- How has the problem affected professionals?
- What are the national and local guidelines on the topic?
- How exactly do you want things to change?
- How will forum members take this forward-Next Steps
The hope is this can be done by working in partnership with local health care teams and other voluntary organisations.
There were MacMillan staff present and some of those who attended were NHS staff, although this was in the capacity as patients or carers.
The debate was very lively and it was remarked that this is an organisation where the views of service users are taken very seriously and not just paid lip service to. This is a very new organisation and if you want to find out more about this you can go to their website: www.yorkshirecancerpatientforum.co.uk
Alternatively they have just set up a Facebook page: www.facebook.com/YCPForum
If this is something which interests you then I please visit, I think you will be find it well worth your time. I did.
This post was written by Pat Jackson using our Create an article for South Leeds Life page.
