2009 saw the launch of our Patient Manifesto, a document that calls for far reaching health reforms and changes to the way the NHS is organised and run.

The Manifesto is the result of extensive research, analysis and discussion and aims to question current thinking, spark debate and create change.

Our ultimate goal is to achieve all party support of our Manifesto.

The Manifesto has been compiled incorporating the vast experience of our members of what works and doesn’t work in the NHS.

Some examples of changes we are calling for include:

• The setting up of independent complaints panels
• Locally elected health boards
• Nursing care to be free to all, regardless of means
• NICE to have patient representation
• Scrapping of all car parking fees at hospitals
• Ensuring all patients have urgent access to a GP within 12hrs and non-urgent access within 24 hrs
• Frontline staff such as doctors and nurses to be exempt from job cuts
• NHS managers to have direct and relevant experience of the field they are managing
• NHS dentists to be universally available

Patients’ Council Chairman, Paul Mainwaring, says: “We believe that major changes in the way services are both provided and delivered are the only way to create an NHS fit for the 21^st century. As patients we see on a daily basis the triumphs and failures of our health service. We believe that patient and carer involvement has to be at the heart of a successful NHS.

“The Manifesto is not a blue sky document full of what we would like in an ideal world, but rather a very real focus on what must change to ensure we get the health service we not only need, but deserve.

“It is a roadmap of change from the patients’ perspective and we hope that the decision makers will commit to our proposals and make them a priority.”