NALM Conference

The National Association of Links Members conference today seemed like a great success. It looked packed with people, I'm guessing around 250 attended and depth of questions and level of debate from attendees was excellent.

I spoke last on the panel session, having been preceded by Cyril Chantler (Chair of the Kings Fund), Barbara Young (Chair of the new Care Quality Commission), Norman Lamb (Lib Dem health spokesperson) and David Pink (CE of National Voices).

The one question that stuck in my mind was why are most councils ignoring LINKs (or at least not giving it the high priority it deserves)? It does seem puzzling that a system that should give voice to patients and public about local NHS services is not being driven hard by many local councils. I would have thought they would jump at the chance to do this.