Part 12Public involvement and scrutiny

Chapter 1Patients' Forums

240Annual reports

(1)

Each Patients' Forum must—

(a)

prepare a report in relation to its activities in each financial year, and

(b)

as soon as possible after the end of each financial year, send a copy of its report for that year to the trust for which it is established, and to the persons mentioned in subsection (2).

(2)

Those persons are—

(a)

the Secretary of State,

(b)

the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health,

(c)

each Strategic Health Authority whose area includes—

(i)

any part of the area of the Primary Care Trust for which the Forum is established, or

(ii)

all or most of the hospitals, establishments and facilities of the NHS trust or NHS foundation trust for which the Forum is established,

(d)

any relevant overview and scrutiny committee within the meaning given by section 237,

(e)

where the report includes provision which relates to any NHS foundation trust, the regulator.

(3)

A report under this section relating to any year must include details of the arrangements maintained by the Forum in that year for obtaining the views of patients.

(4)

In this section, “financial year”, in relation to a Patients' Forum, means—

(a)

the period beginning with the date on which the Forum is established and ending with the next 31st March, and

(b)

each successive period of 12 months ending with 31st March.