In seeking to represent the views of the general public the Eastern Health and Social Services Council endeavours to engage people in a variety of ways. The Council Offices provide an open door service Monday to Friday where any member of the public is welcome to personally visit and seek advice. In the course of this year the Council also dealt with almost 1300 telephone queries from the public on a diverse range of issues and distributed over 2,500 information leaflets by request. The work programme for 2003/2004 also saw the firm establishment of the Council’s web site, with over 8000 visitors.

Each month the Council holds a public meeting in venues across its locality. Any member of the public is welcome to attend these meetings and avail of the opportunity to express views on any aspect of Health and Social Services. The minutes of the meeting are distributed widely to district Councils, Trusts, libraries and the media.

The Council supports these public meetings with additional Council representation on patient participation groups, focus groups and committees with a Health and Social Services agenda. The Chief Officer for the Council is Jane Graham. Jane has been Chief Officer of the Council since 1992. Since taking up her role Jane has become acknowledged as a strong advocate for the rights of the public in the provision of Health and Social Services not only in the Eastern Council area but also across the Province. In the past year alone Jane has travelled over 5000 miles within the Province in giving a voice to the public’s interest.

*membership terminated
**resigned/term ended 2003

Annual Work Programme

As a public body, receiving public funds, the Council is open to public scrutiny in its activities and its use of funds. To develop public accountability the Council sets clear objectives within an Annual Work Programme. Some of the key areas of the Council’s activities in 2003/2004 were Consultation on Health and Social Services, Monitoring of Health and Social Services and Complaints Assistance.

Consultation

One of the key objectives of the Eastern Health and Social Services Council is to advise on Health and Personal Social Services policies, strategies and operation. To that end there is a wide range of consultation documents the Council has responded to in the course of the past year. These included:

	A Strategy for Children in Need: Developing the Strategy
	Making it better. A Strategy for Pharmacy in the Community
	A Strategy for Adult Mental Health Services in the Eastern Health & Social Services Board

In all Consultations the Council strives to represent the views and opinions of the general public.
One specific example of the Council fulfilling that remit was its response to Community Midwifery Units. In June 2003 the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety issued a consultation document on the proposal to provide additional choice to women by opening Community Midwifery Units in Northern Ireland. These Units would offer mothers the choice of having midwives as the main person to care for them through their pregnancy, during labour and after delivery. During the consultation period that ended on 1st October 2003, the Council conducted a major consultation on behalf of all four Councils in Northern Ireland. The work was undertaken to ensure that the public were aware of the proposals for future maternity services and had the opportunity to provide their views. This involved:

	Wide circulation of 2000 Council information leaflets on the proposal
	Contact with the Maternity Services Liaison Committees in the eastern area for information and discussion evenings
	An event held in conjunction with the Downpatrick Maternity Services Liaison Committee to gather the views of the general Downpatrick area where inpatient maternity services had recently been closed
	A focus group held in conjunction with the Northern Ireland’s Women’s Network
	The Council issuing of press releases inviting women to make comments on the document.

The Eastern Health and Social Services Council formally responded to the document, expressing support for a pilot of Community Midwifery Units in Northern Ireland. In July 2004 the Minister for Health, Social Services and Public Safety announced her decision to proceed with the development of Community Midwifery Units in Northern Ireland.

Monitoring of Health and Social Service Provision

In acting as a voice for the general public the Council has looked to monitor the health and personal social services provided to the public. In doing so the Council looks at a variety of information provided by health and social service bodies. Trolley waiting lists in particular are scrutinised on a daily basis along with fracture waiting times. In support of this the Council has also undertaken a number of research projects often at the request of service providers. Amongst a number of areas of care in the past year the Council has looked at Care of Older People in Acute Hospitals and surveyed relatives using the Intensive Care Unit of the Royal Group of Hospitals.