Brief report on user involvement at St Christopher's Hospice.

Abstract

As part of their Clinical Governance agenda, St Christopher's Hospice in southeast London has established a system for gaining patient and carers' views, in order to ensure these are given adequate consideration in planning and providing services. A users forum has been set up, and this article discusses some of the issues that had to be addressed in organizing the forum. Items such as who to invite, who should facilitate the meetings, venue, timetable, and boundaries all needed to be agreed. Evaluation of the usefulness of the forum is still required, with many questions still to be answered, but so far staff, patients and carers have enthusiastically embraced the forum. This report identifies some of the challenges in developing a person-centred user involvement scheme in a voluntary hospice.