Patients, consumers or guinea pigs?

The need for effective public engagement is never more pressing than in this chilly economic climate, argues thinktank Involve. The NHS Confederation offers some advice to CCGs on how to make this work in the new commissioning landscape. Pressure Group the Patients Association has also done some research on the matter and amongst its concerns is how to reward and support patient representatives in CCGs. Elsewhere, the announcement that the government wants to foster innovation by releasing NHS patient data to researchers has not played brilliantly. Some have pointed out that the proposal to make every NHS patient "a research patient" does not sit particularly well with the patient empowerment agenda.