Brian Fisher

I have been a GP in SE London for 25 years. I am a member of the PEC in Lewisham PCT with a particular responsibility for Older Adults, Public and User Involvement and Mental Health. I am also chair of the Managing Demand Project, improving the experience of referral for patients, consultants and GPs.

I was on the Working Group for Copying Letters to Patients and I have helped to write a document for the NHS Alliance on enabling Patient Forums to work productively with PCTs. Enabling practical change on the ground is the aim, benefiting both patients and staff.

For many years, I have been interested in user involvement in the NHS. I have tried to develop a number of different approaches to make this as real as possible. These have included community development, Patients as Teachers, patient access to their health records and working with colleagues to ensure that lay people's views are incorporated in the daily work of the PCT.

I am a member of one of 4 PBC clusters in Lewisham and have helped to support PPI in the process. I have helped to write a document for the NHS Alliance called "Engaging with local people" which outlines approaches to PPI for practice-based commissioning.

I have championed patient record access, now being the director of a company called PAERS that has designed and built kiosk-based access, in conjunction with EMIS, the largest provider of GP software in the UK. We are now piloting web-based record access.

I believe that patients should have full access to data about them and that this will enhance safety and care.