Commentary on Sections Patient and public involvement Section 19: Supplementary
98.Section 19 enables the Secretary of State to make further provision in regulations for Patients’ Forums, in particular concerning funding, accounts, membership and appointments, committees and proceedings, payments for members, premises and staff, reports, the provision of information to or by Patients’ Forums and the referral of matters to overview and scrutiny committees.
99.It is the Government’s intention that Patients’ Forums will receive their money via CPPIH. As such, the Patients’ Forums’ accounts will form part of the accounts of the CPPIH. Subsection (2)(j) provides for this.
100.As regards membership, the regulations must provide for members of the Patients’ Forum to include representatives of local patient or carer voluntary sector groups, as well as patients of the trust. Subsection (4) provides that the PCT Patients’ Forum must also include in its membership at least one member of each Patients’ Forums of the NHS trusts that provide services in the PCT area. In addition, it provides that the CPPIH may include representatives of appropriate local community interest groups which represent the local public in matters relating to their health as members of the PCT Patients’ Forum.
101.Subsection (5) provides that the regulations may include similar requirements about public access to meetings and information of Patients’ Forums as now apply to CHCs and overview and scrutiny committees (with appropriate modifications to account for the different role and constitution).
102.Subsection (6) provides that correspondence from Patients’ Forums is to be added to the list of bodies exempt from subsections (1)(b) and (2) of section 134 of the Mental Health Act 1983, which provide for the withholding of postal packets to and from persons held under that Act.