patients council

About Us

A bit of history

Our roots go back to 1989 when the old Thomas Clouston Clinic was closed and patients were moved to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital. Patients decided they needed a stronger voice. They wanted to have their opinions heard. So they formed a Patients Council which eventually was properly constituted as the Royal Edinburgh Hospital Patients’ Council in 1993. We continue to strengthen the voice of patients and former patients through independent collective advocacy. We continue to build on the foundations established by patients over twenty years ago.

How does it work?

If you are a patient, or have been a patient of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, you are part of the Patients' Council.  You can take part in electing our Management Committee made up of patients or former patients.   The Management Committee prioritises the work and focus of the Patients' Council. Our current Management Committee members are:

The Management Committee Members also do the work by attending meetings and workshops; in fact, anywhere they can influence change. See our ‘things we do’ section for more information on the range of meetings. Also check out the various reports we produce, particularly our three monthly reports. As Members we rely on our own experience as patients and also listen to feedback and the experience of other patients and former patients. We volunteer alongside a range of other co-opted members and activists. Our current Co-Opted members are:

We can’t always win and we can’t always change everything we would like to change, but it is very likely you will have benefited in some way from the work we do. Today the Patients' Council office is based in the heart of The Royal Edinburgh Hospital.

Although funded by the NHS we are independent, our own registered charity, and not part of the hospital or the NHS. Our job is to challenge and campaign for change and improvements in the way services and treatments happen. This means being independent is important. We have a long-established and good working relationship with the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and its staff. We are invited onto many working groups and workshops. Sitting alongside staff we strengthen the voice of patients and work towards developing and improving services.

What is collective advocacy?

The implementation of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 gives every person with a mental health, learning disability or personality disorder the right to access advocacy services. The Patients' Council provides independent Collective Advocacy which focuses on issues which affect more than one person.

Examples include:

• Quality of the food
• Quality of the environment
• Wider issues such as smoking in the hospital and building a new hospital

The Patients' Council works in partnership with Advocard who provide Independent Individual Advocacy in the hospital. Individual issues are issues which affect you personally.  Examples of these are:

• Appealing a decision about your individual care and treatment
• Your benefits
• Your individual care plan

To contact Advocard individual advocacy phone 0131 537 6004. 

 Sometimes more than one person might experience something which needs to change.  When this happens individual advocacy let the Patients' Council know and we take this forward as a collective issue. Collective advocacy goes further than just making change for the better. Our volunteers and co-optees gain a lot from volunteering for the Patients' Council.

Members' Profiles

I have been volunteering with the Patients' Council for two years.  I decided to volunteer because I wanted to support the Management Committee to deliver collective advocacy, listen to the concerns of inpatients and support patients to voice their ideas and concerns around reprovisioning.

I have been involved in collective advocacy meetings, and I have represented the management committee at meetings, open days, information events and having fun!

It is important to me that patients’ voices, ideas and concerns are heard, acknowledged, and acted upon. 

And I have benefitted from the work too.  I have a greater awareness of the issues that affect service users.  I have enjoyed being involved in campaign work and the chance to meet other groups working towards a common goal.  Working for the Patients' Council has given me a sense of contributing to the development of a better mental health service.

Leah Marchbank,
Co-opted Member

I have been involved with the Patients' Council for ten years.  It was suggested by a fellow sufferer I met at a Manic Depressive meeting. He told me I may be able to help out.  Since that date things have moved on somewhat.  By comparing notes with fellow sufferers i.e. customers of the service before, through treatment on site and in the community after, have caused me to wake up. 

We do collective advocacy meetings in most wards.  These meetings involve customers of the service, with two Patients' Council representatives hosting.  The main thrust of these get-togethers is to highlight any anomalies in the ward which affect the patients collectively and the staff.  We notify the staff and if they can’t get anywhere with the problem we take it higher.  The result of our involvement has improved the atmosphere across the board.   We are able to appreciate where people are coming from so we can interpret their position and hopefully make things easier during their stay in the hospital.

Albert R. N.
Management Committee Member

How do I contribute?
There are a number of ways to access the Patients’ Council and these are designed to ensure that as many people as possible are included and can take part:

• Open meetings (six each year) where people bring concerns, raise issues and elect representatives
• Informal ‘drop-in’ sessions
• Regular newsletters, reports and information
• Small collective advocacy meeting groups for patients in various venues around the hospital
• Workshops on topics of interest in mental health
• Joint working partnerships with the hospital