What is the Patients' Forum?
The Patients’ Forum Ambulance Services (London) Ltd is an
independent body which monitors us for the benefit of the
public.
Who makes up the Patients' Forum?
It is made up of members of the public who are involved in our
monitoring, audit, research and policy-making committees.
Officially, patients’ forums were abolished in March 2008 and
are no longer statutory bodies. However, we have continued to have
an effective relationship with our forum and work with them in the
following ways:
- Our senior managers attend forum meetings to present
information and invite discussion on a range of topics. This gives
forum members the chance to have a say on key issues and
decisions.
- Ad-hoc meetings have been held, and action taken, to take
forward issues of particular interest to forum members.
- More recently we have run a series of visits to the
Control Rooms for Forum members, and have also run a Basic Life
Support session for them.
The Patients’ Forum meets every month. For more details
contact Joseph Healy.
Local Involvement Networks (LINks)
Following the abolition of patients’ forums, the Department of Health introduced Local
Involvement Networks (LINks) to give patients a say on their local
health and social care services. As LINks have become
established we have started to engage with them to meet the needs
of our patients. Working
with LINks (pdf 41.0kb)
As LINks are developed into HealthWatch organisations over the
next year, we will continue to build links with them across
London.