Commentary on Sections Part 1: Organisation and Operation of National Health Service Section 7 - Public involvement
42.Section 7 inserts a new section 2B into the 1978 Act covering public involvement. Subsections (1) and (2) together place a duty on Health Boards, Special Health Boards and the Common Services Agency to take action with a view to securing that patients and the public are involved in the planning and development of services as well as decisions that are to be made by those bodies which will significantly affect the operation of services.
43.Subsection (3) defines the services to which the duty applies. Firstly, the services must be ones which it is the function of the Health Board, Special Health Board or the Common Services Agency to provide or secure the provision of and secondly the services must be provided to individuals either by the body itself or by another person on behalf of the body.