Public Members Wanted for NHS Board Committees

25th July 2011

The Board of NHS Highland has always had a strong commitment to involving local people in many aspects of the work carried out by the organisation. This includes members of the public on many of the Board Committees and other individuals who participate in a wide range of Working Groups and other activities. Board meetings and meetings of the local Community Healthy Partnership Committees are also held in public and the public are encouraged to attend and observe proceedings.

The Board however wants to strengthen this commitment through increasing the number of Board Governance Committees that are held in public and at the same time widen public membership of these committees through recruiting new members to those which do not currently have them.





Garry Coutts, Chair of NHS Highland Board, said:

"For some time members of the public have been on the NHS Highland Board as well as on other committees both Board wide and more locally. This has worked well and fits in with our aim of working with the public as much as we can.

"Many of our Committees, including the Board itself and the local Community Health Partnership Committees, are already open for the public to attend and observe proceedings. I very much welcome this but I believe that more can and in fact more needs to be done to strengthen our links with the public through encouraging members of our local communities from right across NHS Highland to become involved in the work carried out by their Health Board.

"The Board has therefore decided to increase substantially the number of Board Governance Committee meetings that are open for the public to attend. This to me is the right thing to do and will hopefully encourage the public to come along and find out more about the workings of their local health service.

"It is also important that the public are not only able to observe these Committees but can become involved in the Committee itself and we are therefore actively seeking expressions of interest from members of the public to join and participate fully in the work carried out by these Committees.

"As a Board we are serious about our involvement with the public and local communities across NHS Highland and through introducing these new proposals I am keen to build on the work that is currently ongoing throughout NHS Highland."

Notes for Editors: NHS Highland is looking for public members for the following Board Committees:

• Endowment Funds Committee
• Health and Safety Committee
• Improvement Committee
• Staff Governance Committee
• Audit Committee.

The deadline for applications is the 12th August and members of the public who are interested in applying are asked to either call the recruitment hotline on 01463 704605 and leave their details or email nhshighlandboard[AT]nhs.net