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PCX

Hello Mandy. That's a very welcome comment on User Uninvolvement and I think your suggestions at the end are excellent. And like an ancient grandfather clock, my pendulum still ponderously ticks between mad and non-mad, sometimes making an unexpected stop in the middle where time has no sense anyway.

But, I don't know if you've already come across it (should I rephrase that?) - the PCX (shorthand for Patient Citizen Exchange) website (to get it, click on the title of this blog) is a chance for those suggestions of yours to contribute to the suits absorbing a little sense.

PCX's parent is the NHS Centre for Involvement - the name now for the 'Centre for Excellence/PPI Resource Centre' which emerged gradually out of the fog of the John Reid arms length body review a couple of years ago and the idea of which was taken on board by the PPI Expert Panel whose recommendations the fragrant Patricia enshrined in prospective law.

PCX is currently touting a questionnaire amongst its members which asks what training now and for the future is needed for patient and public involvement. The survey is, unfortunately, angled towards those working for an organisation (employed or voluntary) but it's completable (a neologism - sign of schizophrenia - someone is bound to diagnose me! See, paranoia too) by users not attached to an organisation.

The point is that, although PCX is a government sponsored organisation and probably run by academics and civil servants, it is asking for the views of users and, providing views are expressed within their guidelines of acceptability, it is an great opportunity for users to convey their views, ideas and feeling to a very pertinent audience. With this in mind too, I'm starting another (PCX) blog on there.

I think your comments and knowledge aired there would be hugely valuable.

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