Opportunities to influence health services in your area!

[EmmaS-NRAS]

Dear all,

We're recently been made aware of three opportunities for RA patients to influence health services across England and Wales:

- Patients in the London area to form a working group for the Farr Institute

- A survey for pharmacy users in the North Yorkshire area to improve services

- National and regional representatives for an advisory committee/panel at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

If you are interested in participating in any of these opportunities, please do get in touch with them direct. However, the Volunteer Network team would be interested in hearing your experiences of committees/groups you get involved in so do let us know by emailing [e-mail]

Best wishes

Emma Seymour

Membership Supervisor

Patient and Public Engagement - Farr Institute of Health Informatics Research, London

The Farr Institute, London aims to promote a new culture of engagement between the public, patients, clinicians and researchers, based on joint development of consent models and electronic health record (EHR) research to improve patient care and public health.

Central to the Farr vision is the need to transform the relationship between the patient, their health record and its uses for clinical care and translational research.

The Farr Institute, London is looking for people to join its Patient and Public Working Group. The Farr London Working Group will meet twice a year and will be a virtual panel in-between meetings, getting involved in projects, research and events as they arise. All travel expenses to meetings will be paid for and training will be provided.

Please contact Carol Porteous, Farr London’s Patient and Public Engagement Co-ordinator for further details, [e-mail] or ring her on 020 3549 5520.

York and North Yorkshire Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments - Questionnaire

Every Health and Wellbeing Board in England has a statutory responsibility to publish and keep up-to-date a statement of the needs for pharmaceutical services for the population in its area, referred to as a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA). The PNA is used to inform decisions about where to site pharmacies (some people call them chemists), opening hours and what services are provided.

Pharmacy - some people call them chemists but in this survey we use the word pharmacy. By a pharmacy, we mean a place you would use to get a prescription dispensed or buy medicines some of which you cannot buy anywhere else.

GP Practice (Dispensing Doctor) - some GP practices dispense medicines at the practice building to patients who live in a rural area. This is different to GP practice buildings in which there is also a full pharmacy within the building.

During the next few months we will be collecting information with the aim of publishing draft PNAs for North Yorkshire and for York in October 2014 and final versions in March 2015. To help produce the PNAs we want to hear about your experiences and opinions about the pharmacy services in your area, and whether there is anything you feel could be changed or improved.

forms.northyorks.gov.uk/Web...

Advisory Committee/Panel at the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)

•Are you interested in health research?

•Do you have experience of working in committees/groups?

•Do you have experience of patient and public involvement?

•Do you have good communication skills?

NIHR are currently looking for members of the public to join the panels/committees for the following research programmes:

- Invention for Innovation (i4i): Product Development Awards panel: one member; and Challenge Awards - panel: two members.

- Programme Grants for Applied Research (PGfAR): Two national sub-panels: one member for each sub-panel.

- Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB): Six Regional Advisory Committees: one member for each committee.

Find out more and register your interest by following the link below:

nihr.ac.uk/get-involved/rec...