Partnering with consumers

Healthcare works best when the people who receive it are involved in shaping it.

Partnering with consumers means listening to patient experiences, perspectives, and ideas, and using them to improve services, information, and decisions.

It is health professionals and consumers working together to design and deliver care that is safe, respectful, and person-centred.

By partnering together, consumers and health services can improve:

delivery of health services
the experience for patients, their carers and family members
health outcomes.

Our Partnering with Consumers Standard (which is part of our broader National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards) requires all health service organisations to form partnerships with consumers.

What does a consumer partnership look like?

Consumer partnerships happen in different ways and at different levels of the healthcare system.

You and your healthcare provider	You can partner with your healthcare provider to make decisions about your care. We call this shared decision making and it involves making decisions using the best available information and considering what matters most to you. It also means you choose who you would like to involve, for example your loved ones or a carer.
You and your health service or program	You can partner with your local hospital or health service by becoming a member of an advisory committee, planning or co-design group.
You and your larger health service organisation	You can partner with your broader health service organisation or even state or territory health department by participating in governance, policy and planning committees.

Our guide to partnering with consumers

Our partnering with consumers guide was created by consumers, for consumers. It explains how consumers can build and strengthen partnerships at all levels of the health system.

Our guide was created for people who:

would like to understand how they can become consumer advocates or consumer representatives, and what they can do to influence change
would like to know how to better partner with health professionals and organisations to improve their own care and health services more broadly
are already consumer representatives, advocates, advisors, members of consumer networks or organisations and would like to understand how our Partnering with Consumers standard supports them.

Our guide also helps health service organisations understand how to get the most from their partnerships with consumers and the different types and levels of consumer involvement and perspectives which can improve their services.

The guide is broken into four chapters and has reflective questions, case studies and educational resources to help explain and use the guide.

Case studies

Our four case studies provide examples of how strong partnerships with consumers have been developed across different care settings and services.

Our case studies are designed to be used together with our guide.

Person-centred care at Braidwood Multipurpose Service

The NSQHS Standards and accreditation at South Metropolitan Health Service

Partnering with consumers in a Queensland delirium prevention program

Building skills and consumer leadership at Fiona Stanley Hospital

Education package

Our education package includes a Facilitator Guide and PowerPoint presentation to support consumers to deliver training sessions alongside health professionals.

The sessions cover:

our partnering with consumers guide
our Partnering with Consumers Standard and what partnering with consumers means
how to strengthen partnerships between consumers and health service organisations.