Introducing Canterbury DHB Consumer Council

The Consumer Council makes sure consumers are heard

The DHB’s Consumer Council would like you to know they exist! The Canterbury DHB Consumer Council was formed in 2008 following a series of workshops with consumers, advocacy and lobby groups. The workshop attendees were asked to define how consumer participation across the Canterbury DHB could work. Through this process, the concept and key functions of a consumer council evolved.  The Council has continued to meet monthly and meets with David Meates, our CEO, on a regular basis. Through David, reports are submitted to the Canterbury DHB twice a year. (Last CEO Report - August 2011)

Canterbury DHB is committed to the role of consumers in planning and changing in the way we care for our population, and as a result, improving our health outcomes.   The Consumer Council aims to make sure that consumers have a strong voice in planning, designing and delivering services in the Canterbury Health System. Their slogan is ‘Nothing about us, without us’, meaning that health care should always be planned with consumer involvement, right from the beginning.   

The Consumer Council: 

·      ensures and enables consumer participation right across the Canterbury Health System;

·      actively reflects consumers’ needs, with members providing input from their own experiences on how initiatives and services are planned and delivered;

·      identifies and advises on strategic issues such as health policy and establishing the priorities and direction for our services;

·      reviews and advises on reports relating to health care, and their outcomes, from the consumer perspective;  

·      ensures open and regular communication with community and consumer groups; and

·      links with ‘special interest’ and other groups  to work on issues and problems.

The role of the Consumer Council is separate from the complaints process, in which the DHB’s Quality and Safety Council oversees a process to follow complaints from their receipt to resolution.

Members of the Consumer Council have diverse backgrounds, knowledge and skills, but are all passionate about consumers being able to access the best possible care from the Canterbury Health System.   They are selected not as representatives of specific organisations or communities of interest, but because collectively they have a broad range of understanding and experience of how it feels to be a consumer, and what consumers need.

There are sixteen nominated members whose particular areas of interest include Maori health, Pacific health, mental health, people with long term conditions, people with physical, intellectual and sensory disabilities, older people, youth, men, women, rural communities, refugee and migrant communities, people with visual and hearing impairment and people with alcohol and other drug addictions.  Keith Gibb, a retired GP, is the Chairperson.  Keith has particular interest in older people, has been affiliated with Eldercare Canterbury for many years and is involved in the Facilities Development Project, through the Clinical Services User Group.

Some examples of activities in 2011 have been working with aged care planners around systems changes (particularly following the February 22 earthquake), providing feedback on a booklet for oncology service users and having membership on each of the Canterbury Clinical Network’s Service Level Alliances. The latter is an important part of our drive for increasingly integrated and co-ordinated health services, and a ‘best for patient, best for system’ framework.

You, or your patients/clients, are very welcome to contact the Consumer Council by emailing consumer.council@cdhb.health.nz to phone Philippa McQueen, the group’s facilitator, on  extension 62170, or 03 3644170.

Remember: ‘Nothing about us, without us’!