Patient Partnership Forum

Background

The Forum formed following an information day in April 2003 and have held monthly meetings since May 2003.  Meetings are on the first Saturday of every month (excluding August and some bank holiday weekends) from 10am to 12pm at the Derby City General Hospital in Derby.  There is a chair and a vice chair to ensure that the leaders duties are shared and a facilitator who offers us much needed support.


Interested?

Why not attend one of our meetings and see how you can get involved in shaping the future of cancer service provision.


Getting involved is easy!

Just contact our Forum Facilitator with any questions on 01332 785960.

We will let you know when we receive your form and all about our upcoming meetings and events.


How can you get involved?

As a Forum we offer many opportunities to become involved in local and national cancer service provision.  We will support you in undertaking Cancer Voices training to help equip you with the skills you need to feel confident in getting involved in cancer care.  There are also many opportunities for you to become involved in different aspects of cancer care- would you like to support the delivery of patient information and volunteer in our information centre?


Membership

Membership of the Forum is open to anyone who has been touched by cancer.  Our current membership includes patients, carers relevant healthcare professionals and just people with an interest in cancer.  We offer both standard and corresponding membership.

We are open and honest and actively seek to involve all in our local community to ensure that any work that we do is representative of the whole community.

Providing the users perspective

As a Forum members are given the opportunity to attend various meetings and conferences both on a regional and national level.  This allows for the views of Derby and Burton patients to influence local and national healthcare provision and improvements.  The Forum also has a work programme which is concentrated on areas important to patients such as patient information and improving communication.


Making decisions on the provision of cancer services

The Chair and Vice chair of the Partnership Forum are members of the Derby-Burton Cancer Network Board which includes all chief executives and lead clinicians of hospital and community healthcare providers.  Members of the forum are an integral part of the local provision of cancer services.


Helping other patients

The Partnership Forum, while supportive of its members, is not a support group. Both Derby and Burton hospitals have well established support groups where anyone with an experience of cancer can attend and discuss feelings and issues.  The Derby-Burton Cancer Network helps other patients through championing the patient and carers views and driving forward improvements.


Looking to the future

The Derby-Burton Cancer Network Partnership Forum is an important factor in the future of cancer services in Derbyshire and East Staffordshire.  Through the Forums engagement with healthcare providers we have the ability to ensure that the patients views are considered when planning future services.