UK Department of Health to gather public opinion

The Department of Health in the UK has announced details of a number of interactive regional and national public engagement events to aid the composition of the development of the White Paper on improving community health and care services, due to published in early 2006. Issues raised at the events, part of the 'Your Health, Your Care, Your Say' public consultation process and run by Opinion Leader Research (OLR), will feed into a national event to be held in Birmingham,UK on 29th October.

They will take place in Gateshead on14th September; Leicester on 24th September; London on 29th September and Plymouth on10th October

Between 50 and 100 people from across those regions will participate in the events and 1,000 people will take part in the national event in Birmingham. As a result of the 'engagement exercise' more than 100,000 people will be invited to put forward their ideas: if people cannot attend the event they will be able to express their views via an online questionnaire. The public will also have the opportunity to take part in local sessions to be run by NHS, local government and voluntary organisations.

This form of White Paper consultation is part of the Department of Health's 'commitment to listening to and engaging with the public, patients and staff about what they think of the NHS and social care, and what changes they want to see in the future'. As part of this commitment it will publish summaries of opinion polls and media evaluation on the Freedom of Information section of its website.