Wednesday 27 May 2009

Patient Body Meets In Public...

THIS week board members of the Patient and Client Council (PPC) met in Derry’s Millennium Forum. The new Health and Social Care body is one of four established by the Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey, on 1 April.

PPC board meetings are open to the public.

According to the PCC’s website it exists ‘to represent the interests of the public by engaging with the public to obtain their views on services’ and to ‘promote the involvement of patients, clients, carers and the public in the design, planning, commissioning and delivery of health and social care’. You would therefore have expected the public gallery to be packed to the rafters with interested spectators…unfortunately this wasn’t the case. With members of the public numbering one, the meeting continued.

The proceedings finished slightly earlier than expected, as the venue had inadvertently been double booked. With a large group of 4 year old girls in pink tutus clamouring at the door, PCC chair John Keanie was forced to bring proceedings to a close. One can only assume that the girls were there for their weekly dance lessons and hadn’t turned up a couple of hours late for the meeting!

No comments: