Our Acute Patient Council celebrated their one-year anniversary recently.

The Acute Patient Council is a place for attendees to share their positive experiences at BSMHFT, whilst also being a safe space for people to share their thoughts on where we could improve.

Led by Katy Willmont, Participation and Experience Lead and her team, the hybrid meetings across 16 of our inpatient wards are always well attended and feature both patients and staff members.

Thanks to collective patient feedback over the year, and over seven sessions, we have made various improvements to our acute care services.

Ensuring patient’s voices were heard, the Trust has now introduced daily morning meetings across our acute sites where a plan for the day is discussed, including planning leave, visitors to the wards and a positive quote to start the day.

Comments were made about the lack of activities available across the sites, so, building upon existing initiatives, we have launched additional training to support all staff to carry out activities especially in the evenings and weekends.

The Acute Patient Council would not be what it is today without the involvement of our Experts by Experience, who helped co-produce the Patient Council from the very beginning. Pictured below are Jess and Ian, two of our Experts by Experience who played a fundamental role in ensuring the Patient Council was a success.

Tariro Nyarumbu, Associate Director of Operations, Acute and Urgent Care said:

“Congratulations on marking your one-year anniversary. Hearing the patient voice is very important. Thank you, Katy, for your leadership and thank you to everyone who is a regular contributor!”