A new opportunity for Local Healthwatch to help enable their populations to make informed choices

Helping patients and the public make informed choices is one of our Local Healthwatch statutory functions. National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Services and Delivery Research Programme Board (HS&DR) funds research which aims to produce rigorous and relevant evidence on quality, access and organisation of health services. Research Funding priorities are identified by a range of stakeholders including views of patients and the public which are critical to ensuring the research programme reflects the needs users of health and care services to make better evidence-informed decisions and choices.
There is an opportunity through Candy Perry, CEO of Healthwatch Birmingham and Public Member of the HS&DR Programme, for all Local Healthwatch to suggest research topics for consideration by leading service managers, commissioners, patients, clinical leaders and researchers at this year’s seminar to set the health service research agenda. The seminar takes place in February 2016 and suggestions need to be with Candy by mid December.
This Programme focuses on quality, access and delivery of health services. Suggestions from last year’s seminar led to research calls including: Evaluating models of community mental health; Response to urgent care needs; Organisation and management of general practice.
When identifying research priorities,  stakeholders are asked to consider:
.       Pressing need for the service and key challenges for the NHS
.       Likely to be of continued relevance to NHS decision-makers, given pace of change
.       Focused on core remit of the HS&DR programme i.e. quality, access and organisation of services
.       Likely to generate actionable findings of national significance
To submit suggestions Local Healthwatch should email CandyP@healthwatchbirmingham.co.uk by 15 December 2015.