Member

The Patients Association is the UK’s leading independent patient charity, working directly with patients with any health condition to campaign for improvements in health and social care. Our remit covers all issues that affect patients, giving us a unique, system-wide view of care from their perspective.

We believe genuine patient partnership should be at the heart of healthcare design and delivery, enabling everyone to access and benefit from the health and care they need to live well.

Through our freephone helpline, membership, patient activities, and consultancy we speak to thousands of patients every year and support their health and wellbeing through our helpline and online resources. Their insights feed directly into our work with healthcare professionals, businesses, and key decision-makers, ensuring policy decisions and healthcare solutions are shaped by authentic patient voice.

Our strategy focusses on patient partnership and we want to build confidence in patients from all backgrounds to work in partnership with healthcare professionals to get the care they need. We also think it is important for patients to work in partnership with organisations such as ourselves to help others, through sharing their experiences of the health system.

We have identified the six key principles of patient partnership, which we have a short animation of:

1. Treating patients as equals
2. Patients who are fully informed
3. Shared decision making and patient partnership
4. Recognising inequalities
5. Seeking patient input
6. Joining services around patients.

We believe it is important for patients from all backgrounds to be represented in our work and it is vital for those that are often underrepresented to have a voice in shaping their care and that of others. This may include refugees, LGBT+ people, travellers, those who do not have English as a first language, and people from rural communities where health services are often not as easy to access because of distance.

We work with regulators, government, charities, pharmaceutical industry, the NHS, universities, and independent health providers to ensure they are working in partnership with patients.