Patient involvement

Spent some time at the PPI Forum for Southampton University Hospitals Trust and sadly there were only three "real" members of the public there and two of them were from the osteoporosis society (which I think is quite an effective lobbying group). Hardly surprising really as the meeting was held at 10:30 in the morning when the vast majority of the public are at work. Oh, and someone mentioned that it wasn't properly advertised either.

Parts of the meeting were very interesting but I didn't get the impression that the forum had any real teeth or powers to change anything for the better - and just as the forums are beginning to find thier feet there are plans to restructure them once more which really just gives the impression that there is no real will to improve scrutiny or public involvement.