We welcome and value the views of our patients, their families and carers, visitors and our local communities. We want you to help us improve our services and ensure that we are focusing on the things that matter most to you.
You can see the current opportunities to get involved with the trust below – along with links to the sign-up forms to express your interest.
If you can’t see any specific projects to get involved with at the minute but would like to register you interest in particular areas or topics that would appeal to you, please let us know here on our online form. Or you can email us directly at [email protected]. We will then make a note of your interest and keep you in mind for any upcoming projects requiring patient or public involvement.
Current Opportunities
- Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) 2026
- Apply to become a Lay Member with the Research and Development Board
- Register your interest in our upcoming patient panel
Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) 2026
East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust are seeking representatives for the annual Patient Led Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE).
PLACE assessments support improvements by providing a clear message, directly from patients, about how the environment or services might be enhanced.
The assessments involve local people (known as patient assessors) going into hospitals as part of teams to assess how the environment supports the provision of clinical care, assessing such things as privacy and dignity, food, cleanliness and general building maintenance and, more recently, the extent to which the environment is able to support the care of those with dementia or with a disability.
Some recent personal experience of in-patient care is useful, although it is not essential. This could be as a patient, relative, carer, friend, patient advocate, volunteer or trust/organisation membership and trust/organisation governor. You will be called a patient assessor even if you are not a patient yourself.
Age is no barrier to being a patient assessor. It can be particularly helpful to have input from children and young people for paediatric areas. Older people make up the majority of the adult in-patient population, so should ideally be well-represented in the PLACE team.
If you are interested you can get in touch with the PLACE here.
In addition, training sessions via Microsoft Teams will be available for those who require refresher training and for those who have not taken part previously.
Full PLACE inspections are to be held during November, with specific dates revealed once you have contacted the PLACE team using the information above.
Apply to become a Lay Member with the Research and Development Board
The Lister Research Office are developing a new initiative to strengthen patient and public involvement in research governance across the trust.
They are looking to recruit to Lay Members (patient/public representatives) to join the R&D board and contribute to discussions on research strategy, governance and service improvement. The board meets on a quarterly basis.
Find out more about what a research lay member does, and how to apply.
Applications will close on 21 September 2026
Register your interest in our upcoming patient panel
Would you like to join our upcoming patient panel? We are looking for members with lived experience of the healthcare services, carers, patients or if you just have a particular interest in health services.
We are still finalising details, but the panel will have a commitment for members of regular meetings. The meetings will likely be held once a quarter and can either be attended in person or virtually. They will be structured meetings with set agendas that focus on current priorities of the panel and ask for your input on priorities, projects and improvements in the Trust.
Past Opportunities
- Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2025
- Find out about digital innovations and developments in cancer care
- PLACE 2023 – Patient Led Assessments of the Care Environment
- Public consultation: Mount Vernon Cancer Centre
Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2025
This year’s Annual General Meeting took place on 15 September at 5.30pm.
Our chair Anita Day, and then-chief executive Adam Sewell-Jones along with our executive team spoke about the Trust’s performance over the past year.
You can now watch the Annual General Meeting back via YouTube by clicking this link.
Find out about digital innovations and developments in cancer care
On Thursday 26 September, our digital team held a webinar to discuss some of the digital developments that have taken place over the last year, including our new maternity electronic patient record (EPR) system, our new staff communication solution Alertive, and how patients are managing their care more closely with our digital Patient Hub. The team also be looked ahead, discussing the role of AI at the Trust, and the new EPR system for the wider Trust that will launch next year.
You can watch back the webinar here on YouTube.
PLACE 2023 – Patient Led Assessments of the Care Environment
The yearly PLACE assessments allow patients ad members of the community to come into our hospitals and assess how the environment supports clinical care. The assessments generally take 4-5 hours and look at the hospital’s cleanliness, general building maintenance and also cover food tasting. Please click this link to find out more.
The 2023 assessments took place in November this year but if you would like to get involved with the 2024 assessment, please keep an eye on this page for updates or you can email us for more information at [email protected]
Public consultation: Mount Vernon Cancer Centre
The Lister Research Office are developing a new initiative to strengthen patient and public involvement in research governance across the trust.
They are looking to recruit to Lay Members (patient/public representatives) to join the R&D board and contribute to discussions on research strategy, governance and service improvement. The board meets on a quarterly basis.
Find out more about what a research lay member does, and how to apply.
Applications will close on 21 September 2026
