More than a new name: a renewed commitment to PPI

At the start of this year the College launched PatientsVoices@RCoA , the new name and brand for what was previously known as the RCoA Lay Committee. This is just one of a number of things that the College is doing to strengthen the patient voice in its work. In this issue I’m talking to Elena Fabbrani, Patient and Public Involvement Manager, about the College’s wider work in the area of patient engagement.

 We thought we’d have a bit of fun in the last issue, so we turned El and Pauline into avatars!

PE: Hi El, it’s great to talk to you. Can you tell me a bit about your role and the renewed commitment to patient and public involvement at the College?

EL: I’ve been involved with the Lay Committee and the production of patient information for many years. However, last year the College decided that it was time to relook at how it does patient and public involvement (PPI). It decided that this was best done with a dedicated member of staff. That’s how my role came about.

The aim of the role is to, in time, develop a dedicated PPI function working across all directorates and supporting impactful patient engagement across a wide range of College projects. To help achieve this, we’ve set up a network of PPI champions – members of staff who are passionate about patient engagement and who can support and share good practice in their teams. After all, good patient engagement is everybody’s responsibility!

PE: Why now? What made the College recognise that it needed to improve the way it engages with patients and their representatives?

EL: I think a number of things contributed to this decision. Externally, there’s a changing landscape when it comes to PPI. There’s much more focus on active participation, for example in the design of healthcare services. Generally, many organisations are moving away from more traditional and at times tokenistic approaches to patient engagement. Within the anaesthetic community, shared decision-making and the Montgomery ruling have brought to the fore the importance of meaningfully involving patients. Rightly, this ethos is permeating much of what the College does, including how it engages with the diverse patient communities our members look after.

PE: Where does PatientsVoices@RCoA fit into all this?

EL: We knew that a good starting point was to build on the success of the Lay Committee and modernise our approach to PPI. When we surveyed the Lay Committee members in 2020, they told us quite clearly that they wanted to have a stronger voice as a group within the College and that they wanted to be more impactful in representing the views of patients. Hence the decision to change their name and to give them their own identity. So, PatientsVoices@RCoA are a key element of our PPI work.

PE: What are the College’s strategic aims around PPI?

EL: I’m really glad you asked that question, because a new name and a shiny logo are great, but they need to be backed up by solid strategic aims. In fact, we already have a strong foundation with the College strategy’s healthier outcomes for all strategic theme and the PatientsVoices@RCoA strategy. These give us a very clear direction in terms of using a partnership approach in helping patients achieve better outcomes and strengthening the voice of patients in our work.

PE: These are very worthy but ambitious aims. How is the College going to

deliver on these?

EL: We’ve realised that we need to change the way we think about PPI at an organisational level. Since 1998 we’ve used the Lay Committee as our primary method of engagement. Doing things differently will require learning new ways of working and having a different mindset about patient engagement. This is why we decided to write a Patient and Public Involvement strategy, the first for the College. It sets out a roadmap for staff and clinical leads, and shows what good PPI looks like. It builds on the strategic aims which I’ve already mentioned and turns them into practical things that we can do as an organisation to achieve truly meaningful patient engagement. Importantly the strategy will be translated into key performance indicators for teams in their operational plans, so that we can measure the impact and the delivery of our PPI objectives.

PE: You talked about showing what good PPI looks like. Can you give me some examples of what we might be seeing that’s new and different over the

coming years?

EL: You can certainly expect increased visibility for PatientsVoices@RCoA. We were delighted that you led the breakout session at Anaesthesia 2023 on digital advances in preoperative assessment, and I’m hoping that in the future you’ll be able to host your own events and conferences for the benefit of both our members and the public. You can also expect to see a much more diverse range of patients’ voices and lived experiences, as we are looking to collaborate more closely with organisations who can help us reach different sections of the patient community.

PE: Thanks Elena. I’m greatly encouraged by the College’s commitment to PPI, and all members of PatientsVoices@RCoA are looking forward to working with you and the College to deliver on these aims over the coming years.