Get involved in your NHS

Do you want to use your experience to influence local decisions about diabetes services and care? Get involved with your NHS.

Only people living with diabetes know first-hand what it’s like to experience NHS diabetes treatments and services. Getting involved in your NHS will help make sure people with diabetes have a voice in decisions where you live.

Over the past few years, UK governments have become keen to involve patients and the public in shaping local health services. This means there are lots of opportunities for you to have a say and make a difference in your area.

Why get involved in your NHS?

Become an advocate for diabetes care in your area: not only is it an opportunity to get your opinions heard, but you will be able to champion the views of your local community.
Help identify areas of waste and inefficiency and save the NHS money.
Get attention for neglected issues or ideas.
Make sure everyone in your area is getting our 15 essential diabetes care measures.
Tell us what’s going on in your local area – we can use this information to help us improve services.
It’s the law. NHS organisations are required by law to engage patients and the public, and take account of patient experience.

Read Peter’s story to find out more about why you should get involved in your NHS.

What opportunities are there?

There are lots of different ways you can get involved with your NHS at both a local and national level. For example, you can:

Work with local health trust or provider as a service user representative
Be a member of a guideline development group
Be a member of a research steering group
Be a member of a committee
Carry out ward visits to talk to diabetes patients
Get involved in a patient forum at your local hospital.

However you choose to get involved, you’ll be playing an important role in representing the voice of people living with diabetes. Find out more about getting involved download our How to get involved with your local NHS (PDF, 182KB) and our Guide to the NHS and User Involvement (PDF, 180KB).

I’m involved with my NHS – what next?

We want to make sure that everyone with diabetes has access to 15 essential diabetes care measures, based on the care standards set out by NICE and NHS Quality Improvement. As a patient representative, you can help us make sure people in your area are getting the care they should be by:

Talking about the 15 essential diabetes care measures at your NHS involvement meetings
Finding out whether your area is offering people with diabetes all 15 measures
If you find gaps in care in your area, raise them at your involvement meetings and how you can work together to improve services.
Tell us what’s going on in your area so we can draw up a national picture of diabetes care and lobby the NHS to improve.

Find out how to champion the 15 diabetes care measures in your role as a service user representative in our Guides and how to’s section.