The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 276 No 7405 p730
17 June 2006

Society summary

Consultation on PPI strategy gets green light

A draft strategy for patient and public involvement (PPI) in the Society was agreed by the Council at the June Council meeting. Consultation on the strategy will begin next month, after points raised by Council members have been dealt with, The strategy, which looks at how the Society might include the views of patients and the public in its work, makes clear the respective contributions of patients and the wider public and suggests ways to integrate PPI into the Society’s work through a three-tier model which recognises that different aspects of the Society’s functions lend themselves to patient and public involvement in different ways. It also proposes an infrastructure to support, oversee, monitor and evaluate PPI in the Society.

The consultation period will begin on 3 July and finish in the first week of September. The strategy will be available on the Society’s website. The strategy will also be sent to more than 50 external stakeholder bodies.

Commenting on the Council’s decision after the Council meeting, the President, Hemant Patel, said: “The Society is increasingly involving its members, patients and the public in its work in a number of ways. While the Pharmacy 20:20 project will consult the members, this draft strategy sets out proposals for how the Society may include the views of patients, as users of pharmacy services, and the public, as stakeholders in relation to issues of interest, more strategically, so that PPI becomes an integral part of the Society’s business.”

Mr Patel added: “As both a professional and regulatory body it is important that we embrace a growing requirement for organisations with public duties to work towards engaging with patients and the public more systematically. The draft strategy proposes a coherent and sustainable way forward over three years to create structures to enable patients and the wider public to take an active part in the development of the organisation.”