Consumer council meetings spark knowledge transfer and collaboration

Over the past few weeks, our Partners in Care team was invited to meet with some of the district health board’s (DHB) consumer councils to talk about the Commission’s consumer engagement work. Staff also talked about the Atlas of Healthcare Variation and how consumer councils could access and use it.

Almost all DHBs now have consumer councils in place that meet regularly, so the consumer voice is heard within the DHBs and local communities are represented within the region’s health sector.

The Partners in Care team met with Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Wairarapa consumer councils to explain more about the Commission’s data, tools and programmes and how these can be used to better understand the health status within the community.

The consumer councils have shown interest in the Commission’s Atlas of Healthcare Variation, which gives an overview of variations by geographic area of specific health services used and health outcomes. They also liked learning more about the quality and safety markers, to see which programmes perform well or where changes need to be made.

Our team really enjoys these meetings, as they get a better understanding about what others are doing in their region, what their focus is and whether our knowledge from other regions can help further improve a council. For example, one council was very interested in finding out more about a co-design project around rheumatic fever.

The team is looking forward to meeting Nelson-Marlborough DHB’s consumer council soon.

The Partners in Care team with the Wairarapa DHB consumer council

The Partners in Care team with the Waikato DHB consumer council

The Partners in Care team with the Bay of Plenty DHB consumer council