Patient Representative

Recently Health Improvement Scotland (HIS) published Clinical Standards for Neurological Services. To help Health Boards meet these standards a Scotland-wide programme called Neurological Voices (NV) was set up. The aim of NV was to engage with patients with neurological conditions and their carers and train some of them to be patient representatives.

I have primary progressive MS and responded to a small article about NV in the P&J. I made contact with NV and went to 3 training sessions. At a follow-up session we met with members of the Neurology Department who asked for a patient representative to attend the Neurological Services Group which they were about to set up. I volunteered to be the representative in the first instance. My background is that I am a medical physicist and have worked in the nuclear medicine department at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for many years so have some understanding of how NHS Grampian functions. Like many patients, I have felt there were aspects of the neurological service which could be improved and I am keen to make a contribution to doing that.

I can be contacted at:

Nuclear Medicine Department,
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary,
Foresterhill, Aberdeen AB15 5PT.

e-mail: howard.gemmell@nhs.net