Work with us

What we offer

The Patients Association has six decades of experience of working with patients from all walks of life and supporting organisations to partner with patients and communities to improve services.

We are dedicated to supporting patient organisations to support their engagement with patients and carers.

Our work with our partners is award winning. In July 2023 we were awarded a Gold standard in the Ovid Patient Partnership Index for the AMR Patient Shield Project. This project co-produced resources for patients and carers of things to consider when deciding about antibiotics.

Learn more about our work in four key areas with healthcare organisations and read about some of our recent projects in the sections below. We offer services in:

Patient Engagement

Training and Development

Patient Support

Understanding Patient Perspectives.

If you would like to learn more about how your patient, carer and community engagement work can benefit from working with us, contact our Head of Programmes, Shivani Shah, for more information on our projects and partnerships [email protected]

Patient Engagement

We can support organisations build partnerships with patients, carers and communities

  • How we facilitate patient engagement

    We facilitate partnerships between patients and carers and health and care organisations ranging from the public sector through to healthcare companies, to ensure patients' voices are heard and valued. Read more

  • Transforming outpatient services for patients

    We supported NHS England to improve patients’ experience of outpatient services, focusing on GP referrals to hospitals. The patient panel and focus group we brought together enabled NHS England to hear the perspectives of diverse communities and work with them to craft recommendations to improve referrals for all patients. Read more

  • Support for ICSs to embed patient partnership in your work

    We bring genuine patient engagement and expertise to our collaborations with healthcare organisations. We can support your efforts to work in partnership with patients and communities. Read more

Training and Development

We can support you to integrate shared decision making and patient partnership into you culture

  • Improving complaints

    We have supported several NHS Trusts to improve how they deal with patient complaints, including Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. We work with Trusts’ patient experience leads to and complaints managers to improve patients’ experience of making a complaint. Read more

  • Training programmes tailored to your organisation's needs

    We are experts in supporting organisations to integrate shared decision making and patient partnership into their culture. Read more

  • A guide to establishing a GP practice patient group

    The Herts and West Essex project developed a step-by-step guide to setting up a patient practice group. Watch the video and download the slides. Read more

Patient Support

Our work empowers patients to navigate the complexities of the healthcare system with confidence.

  • How we support patients

    We empower patients to navigate the complexities of the healthcare system with confidence. Read more

  • Switching to Biosimilars

    If you you're asked to switch to a new biosimilar medicine, we have worked with patients, clinicians and pharmacists to create resources to help you decide what’s best for you. There are also resources for healthcare professionals to better engage patients in making decisions about whether to swtich. We were also by three pharmaceutical companies, which supported this work. Read more

  • Partnering with patients in the development of the outpatient strategy

    We’ve been working with the Royal College of Physicians and NHS England on the development of a new outpatient strategy, ensuring patients contribute to the redesign and delivery. We arranged patient panels made up of people who regularly use outpatients to discuss what works well, what could be improved, and access. Members of the panels have also taken part in summits hosted by the Royal College of Physicians and NHS England. Read more

Understanding Patient Perspectives

If you need to understand patients’ experiences and the impact of healthcare on their day-to-day lives, we can help..

  • Let us help you understand the patient point of view

    We can help organisations understand patients’ experiences and the impact of healthcare on their day-to-day lives. Read more

  • New report on the relationship between the public, their data, and the health and care system

    Our new report looks into the relationship between patients, their data, and the health and care system. It shows patients recognise the potential data use has to enhance healthcare quality but also that to realise this potential, patients’ concerns about how their data are handled must be addressed. Read more

  • Hospital Food Review 2020

    The Patients Association ran a survey of patients asking them what they thought of hospital food. We were commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care to do this and the perspectives were used in the Hospital Food Review in 2020. The report provided recommendations for improvement, emphasising the importance of meal choices, quality, and the impact of food on patients' overall hospital experience. Read more