Focus on: public and patient involvement Creating solutions alongside and never on behalf of patients Empowering people with lived experiences across each area of our work, to create lasting change in the development of health services P ublished in 2017, the Patient and Public Participation Policy sets out how the NHS plans to put the patient and the public at the heart of everything it does. Critical to the policys success is ensuring the public and patients views are heard at all levels and across all parts of the healthcare system. Patient and public involvement (PPI) is key to the work of Eastern AHSN, ensuring the innovations we support reflect what matters to the people who will use them. Our aim is for people with lived experience (patients and carers or other relevant individuals) to be involved in each area of our work. This starts with the selection process, during which we ensure patient representation on our monthly innovation review panels to help shape consultations on which innovators we support and how best we can do so. Over the past year, we focused our PPI on the empowerment of patients through our self-care programme of initiatives. These included: E SCAPE-pain, a national AHSN programme that supports patients to exercise, safely keep mobile and take back control of their lives A ctive+me, an integrated health-monitoring programme to guide people with heartdisease through safe and appropriate exercise, alongside a monitor to record health metrics at home, so individuals can take an active role in managing their condition. In 2019, we also supported the East of England Citizens Senate to recruit new members that represent the diversity of our region and have worked collaboratively to bring about lasting change in the development of health services. A patients view Rod Earp, a member of the East of England Citizens Senate shared his thoughts on 20 years of PPI. Simple but effective is a fine way to describe the best examples of PPI. I remember a wonderful lady who single-handedly changed the quality and perception of the food at Ipswich Hospital. By listening to patients, encouraging the hospital to let patients families taste samples and by being generally lovely, she found an exquisite solution to a real challenge. Good PPI is about more than helping others, it is about creating solutions alongside and never on behalf of patients. Share this article Share this article Self-care Find out more about the impact we have had in self-care in the Eastern region over the past year, including ESCAPE-pain and Active+me. Citizens Senate The East of England Citizens Senate is looking for patients and carers, or those with other relevant experience, to become members. Find out more at eoecitizenssenate.org Discover more about our work with patients and the public at EasternAHSN.org