Clients’ Participation Council
Opinions and advocacy
Under the Participation (Clients of Care Institutions) Act), the Executive Board is required to seek the Patient Council’s opinion on certain subjects. In other words, the Patient Council’s duties and powers are laid down in the law. The Patient Council is also entitled to issue unsolicited advice to the Executive Board.
In addition to its statutory tasks, the Patient Council also seeks to represent a number of common patient interests. These mainly involve quality aspects of care that have a direct bearing on patients’ sense of well-being and the way in which they experience their stay at the Erasmus MC.
The Patient Council seeks to raise staff awareness of how important it is to take account of patients’ interests and encourages patient involvement in policy-making.
Responsibilities
The Patient Council represents the collective interests of patients. If there are complaints, for example, that waiting times are too long or that patients are not properly informed, the Patient Council is entitled to raise the matter with the Executive Board.
For this reason, the Patient Council needs to be aware of patients’ wishes and needs. What sort of things are patients unhappy with? What suggestions do they have for improving the standard of care? To this end, the Patient Council seeks to keep in touch with both individual patients and patients’ organisations.
The Patient Council does not deal with individual cases or complaints. There is a special complaints procedure that you should follow if you have a complaint about a department or a member of staff. Having said this, the Patient Council is in regular contact with the Complaints Committee. If there is evidence that certain complaints are made on a regular basis, for example, the Patient Council can ask the Executive Board to look into the matter.
Who are the members of the Patient Council?
- Mr Yeb-Jan Joustra, chair
- Ms Maaike Bos-Steffens, member
- Ms Nesrin Musa, member
- Mr Lucas van Ewijk, member
- Mr Han van Welie, member
- Mr Hugo van Tienhoven, member
- Ms Sandra Vis, member
- Mr Santhuruu Nadesapillai, member
Meetings in 2023
The Patient Council is scheduled to meet on the following dates in 2023:
- February 6
- March 13 (Theme session)
- April 17
- June 5
- September 18
- October 16 (Theme session)
- November 20
- December 18
