Meeting a... Patient and Public Participation Lead
Who are you: Charlotte Rowbotham.
Summarise your role: I work closely with patients, members of the public, colleagues and partners to promote and improve patient experience. My role is ensuring the patient/public voice is always in the room and involved when it comes to making changes to the delivery of services and treatment/care. I provide support and advice to teams on how to do this.
I am responsible for delivering the Trust's patient and public participation strategy - our plan for working collaboratively with local communities, particularly those with protected characteristics.
I also manage the Trust's patient network – SASH people’s panel. This is a group of local residents and partner organisations who have signed up to be involved in making positive change happen. We currently have 126 members and growing!
What do you find challenging about your role: Having enough time to speak to all of our services and teams about the importance and benefits of patient/public involvement. I still feel like a lot of people don’t know about my role and the support I can offer them.
What do you find rewarding: I get the most satisfaction from providing the Trust with feedback from people who are part of groups or communities who are often under represented, and seeing the Trust make positive changes in response. Seeing patients/members of the public/carers collaborating with staff on service improvements is really rewarding.
What do you enjoy outside of work: I have recently joined my local tennis club so I’m really enjoying getting back into playing. At the weekend I try and spend as much time outdoors as possible - including visiting National Trust locations with my family, bike rides and gardening. I also enjoy making time for my friends whether that’s trying new restaurants or exhibitions on anything Tudor-related.