Public involvement in health care: Process needs to be transparent and open

Editor—Florin and Dixon raise important points about the need for clarity on the issue of increased public involvement in decision making in the NHS.1 Two points are worth emphasising. Firstly, the entire process could be reduced to a tickbox exercise in which trusts co-opt “tame” representatives to rubber stamp decisions. Secondly, “professional” public representatives could emerge whose views are not necessarily representative of the public's and who turn up as public representatives on every committee and board. The process by which the public is involved in making health service decisions needs to be transparent and open and may require extra effort, to ensure that the process is indeed inclusive.