Activities of the Margaret Pyke Centre Research and Innovation Forum: A group of community volunteers incorporating patients and local residents

2012 Conference

Abstract: Members of the Forum have helped to develop a large NIHR-funded research study of Pre-Pregnancy Health and care in England through reviewing the design of participant questionnaires, and developing patient information and strategies for recruitment.

In an effort to involve all local residents, a project setting up contraceptive and sexual health services for homeless people has been awarded a bursary from the Burdett Trust for nursing.

Patients report being very satisfied with the care they receive at the Centre, prompting them to get involved with the Forum as a way of giving something back. Forum meetings are lively gatherings, where staff and patients speak openly with each other. Centre staff describe gaining better insight into the patient experience and learning how care information might be (mis-)understood by patients. Patients feel involved in the research and their own care.

Learning points include practicalities of the patient involvement process, mutual benefits of such projects to both patients and staff, and successful projects currently underway at the Margaret Pyke Centre.

Areas for discussions will embrace the above, as well as maintaining the interest of volunteers, strategies to bring patients’ suggestions into practice and issues of selfsustainability of public engagement projects.