An appeal is being made for volunteers to join a Patient Council, which is attached to Mid Essex Hospitals Trust.

It is hoped that the council will be able to expand from its present membership from 15 to 30.

Gail Partridge, deputy director of nursing at the trust, said: "The group we have is very good and provides invaluable help to us, but we need more people to support us in every way.

"We are hoping by this time next year to have doubled the size because demands on the present group are growing and we do not want to overload them."

The Patient Council is made up of patients and service user representatives who can become involved in a wide range of issues including carrying out patient satisfaction surveys, patient information and research and development.

Main meetings are once a month and there are other committees that meet monthly.

"The group provides a patient perspective for the trust on a huge range of issues," said Gail.

"We need their common sense slant. We are looking at all age groups to join and we could take new members from the age of 16. All we ask is that they are NHS users, which just means that they are registered with a GP."

Anyone who would like to join the Patient Council can contact Colleen Hall on 01245 516535.

Published Tuesday September 28, 2004

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