Patient and public involvement programme support for health infrastructure plan
Hampshire Together: Modernising our Hospitals and Health Services (MOHHS) programme had received funding through HM Government ’s Health Infrastructure Plan (HIP2) to develop proposals for a new hospital to serve the people of north and mid Hampshire.
Led by Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, MOHHS had planned a programme of pre-consultation patient, public, staff and stakeholder engagement to meet its statutory duty to inform the development of its proposals. The engagement programme included targeted activity with key groups with over 50 different public-facing sessions. The engagement programme was complicated by COVID-19 social distancing measures, meaning events needed to take place digitally.
Stand was appointed to provide expert advice and capacity to support the in-house team to deliver the planned programme of events. We helped identify and target participants from across the community. We recruited patients, local residents, stakeholders, and representatives from the community and voluntary sector and other groups with an interest. We set up the processes and procedures to support the in-house team in organising and reporting on the events, and we provided capacity to run and report on more than 40 digital events.
Elliot Nichols, director of communications and engagement for Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“The team from Stand have become a temporary extension of the Hampshire Together communications and engagement team, providing support, expertise and capacity to ensure our engagement phase has reached key target communities of interest. We’ve very much appreciated the can do, hands on deck attitude of the Stand team, they have helped us develop improved ways of delivering engagement sharing their professional practice and experiences with us. We look forward to building on what we have learned as we continue to ensure we bring the voices of local people into this important hospital programme.”
