National Health Service Act 2006

241 Further provision about Patients' Forums E+W

(1) The Secretary of State may by regulations make further provision in relation to Patients' Forums.

(2) The regulations may in particular make provision as to—

(a) the appointment of members,

(b) any qualification or disqualification for membership,

(c) terms of appointment,

(d) circumstances in which a person ceases to be a member or may be suspended,

(e) the proceedings of Patients' Forums,

(f) the discharge of any function of a Patients' Forum by a committee of the Forum or by a joint committee appointed with another Forum,

(g) the appointment, as members of a committee or joint committee, of persons who are not members of the Forum or Forums concerned,

(h) the funding of Patients' Forums and the provision of premises, other facilities and staff,

(i) the payment of travelling and other allowances to members of a Patients' Forum or of a committee of a Forum or a joint committee of two or more Forums (including attendance allowances or compensation for loss of remunerative time),

(j) the preparation by a Patients' Forum of annual accounts, and their inclusion in accounts of the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health,

(k) the provision of information (including descriptions of information which must or must not be provided) to a Patients' Forum by a Strategic Health Authority, a Primary Care Trust, an NHS trust, an NHS foundation trust, the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health or a person providing independent advocacy services (within the meaning given by section 248),

(l) the provision of information by a Patients' Forum to another person (including another Forum),

(m) the referral of matters by a Patients' Forum to a relevant overview and scrutiny committee (within the meaning given by section 237),

(n) the preparation and publication of reports by Patients' Forums including the publication of reports under section 240,

(o) matters to be included in any such report,

(p) the furnishing and publication by Strategic Health Authorities, Primary Care Trusts, NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts of comments on reports or recommendations of Patients' Forums.

(3) The regulations must secure that the members of a Patients' Forum include—

(a) at least one person who is a member or representative of a voluntary organisation whose purpose, or one of whose purposes, is to represent the interests of—

(i) persons for whom services are being provided under this Act, or

(ii) persons who provide care for such persons, but who are not employed to do so by any body in the exercise of its functions under any enactment, and

(b) at least one person for whom services are being or have been provided by the trust for which the Patients' Forum is established.

(4) The regulations must also secure that the members of a Patients' Forum established for a Primary Care Trust also include—

(a) at least one member of the Patients' Forum established for each NHS trust or NHS foundation trust all or most of whose hospitals, establishments and facilities are situated in the area of the Primary Care Trust, and

(b) if it appears to the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health that there is a body which represents members of the public in the Primary Care Trust's area in matters relating to their health, at least one person who is a member or representative of that body (or, if there is more than one such body, of any of those bodies).

(5) The regulations may include provision applying, or corresponding to, any provision of Part 5A of the Local Government Act 1972 (c 70) (access to meetings and documents), with or without modifications.