Clinical governance is high on the Government's agenda for improving quality in health and social care. It was introduced to ensure fair access to effective, prompt and high quality care for all users, regardless of geographical area. An integral aspect of this initiative is the involvement of users.
This paper presents current government policy on clinical governance, a working definition and an exploration of the value of user involvement. It gives an example of establishing a strategy for user involvement, from Bedfordshire and Luton Community NHS Trust, where the first author is a non-executive member of the Trust Board. It suggests methods that occupational therapists can use to involve users in various aspects of the service.
The authors propose that, for occupational therapists, the whole culture of involving users must shift from being passive to being proactive. Occupational therapists are well placed to be pioneers in this agenda and must move forward in involving users, in order to create modern, dependable and user-friendly health and social care.
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