Towards the end of January 2023, the Department of Health launched a public consultation on a draft national policy for the remuneration of certain categories of patient representatives who sit on committees and working groups in the Irish health and social care sector. The draft policy uses a new term in the Irish PPI landscape, “Patient Voice Partners”.
The PPI Ignite Network responded to the public consultation, as did some of our national and local partners, Lead Site Universities, research teams and individual PPI contributors.
Read here the Network’s response to the public consultation survey.. The survey questions and format were not conducive to providing comprehensive feedback on important aspects of the draft policy. Therefore, you can also read a more comprehensive response document prepared by the PPI Ignite Network.
The PPI Ignite Network broadly welcomes this draft policy as an important step in recognising the importance of involving and valuing the public and patient perspective in shaping the health service. We commend department staff on progress to date and now urge the Department of Health (DoH) to draw on and learn from the extensive national expertise in this area in the research community, in charities and patient organisations, within other statutory agencies including Tusla Child and Family & HSE R&D, and among the general public, including patients. However, we identified nine significant recommendations (see Section 8, Additional Information). We are ready to work with the Department of Health during the revision of this policy, and look forward to receiving an invitation to do so, to ensure that the best interests of the patient and public representatives who sit on committees and working groups in the Irish health and social care sectors are served.