The Council holds monthly meetings, which are open to the public, where members can raise local concerns.

The four Health and Social Services Councils agreed a three year strategic work programme for 2005-2007 and the Western Health Council has worked towards taking this work forward in 2005/06.

Some of the areas of work which the Council has been involved in are:

Autism subgroup – a subgroup of Council members and staff met with parents of children with autism in the Sperrin Lakeland area and facilitated meetings with officers of the Trust and Board to highlight the lack of services for children with autism.

Waiting list monitoring subgroup – the subgroup met quarterly with officers from the Trusts and Board to highlight areas of concern regarding lengthy waiting times. This year the focus has been on monitoring waiting times in Occupational Therapy; Breast clinics; Orthopaedic and Ophthalmology.

Local Ambulance Liaison Group – the Chief Officer attended quarterly meetings of the Local Ambulance Liaison Group to monitor ambulance services in the Western Board area and to highlight areas of concern raised by Council members.

Supporting complainants and providing advocacy services – the Council staff continue to support people wishing to make a complaint about the service they have received and also to advocate for people who may be having difficulty accessing services in health and social care.

Equality and human rights – a member of the Council staff attends monthly meetings and contributes to the work of the Western Equality and Human Rights Forum to ensure a partnership approach to equality and human rights in the Western Board area.

Proposed new Patient Client Council (PCC) - the WHSSC continued to work closely with our colleagues in the other three Councils. The Joint Councils contributed to the Department’s Working Group on the new Patient Client Council and have presented papers on the functions and a Structure for the new PCC.

Maggie Reilly

Chief Officer