Our District General Hospital was one of the first Trusts. It is run very efficiently (curiously I found out that the Chief Exec was in my class at school!). Unfortunately they were so efficient that they carried out more procedures than the government had money to pay them, so the government reduced the amount they pay for each procedure (called "The Tariff"). This meant the hospital planned to lay off some staff. However the trust listened to the staff, and with a bit of wheeler-dealing and a few early retirements, they managed to avoid staff cuts.

My involvement is in a Cancer Services Users Group, and we are very highly thought of by both the staff and the trust. We have managed to get a number of changes made to the cancer journey, and more general improvements carried out within the hospital. We have championed ideas put forward by staff, ideas that have sometimes been blocked in the "proper channels". Amongst the ideas that are now being taken up by other trusts are patient held log books, and taped interviews with consultants.

I don't believe we would have the influence and respect we now have had we operated under the old regime. We can summon anyone we want from within the trust to attend our meetings, and have had very owrthwhile presentations from the head of imaging, the chief pathologist, the head of the primary care trust, the palliative care consultant and the chief executive of the trust. Staff give up their saturday mornings to attend our meetings, and we have attendance from the cancer network, the PCT, the local hospice and other bodies.

However I think the governors are a waste of space. The only people with time to become governors are either retired or local politicians, and although I've nothing against either I don't think they are truly representative of the hospitals user base as a whole.

John