The East Midlands Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Senate is looking for new members to join its Senate from Lincoln and Lincolnshire. The patient and public involvement Senate is an independent body hosted by HIEM, it works to spread best practice through its member’s networks – extending its reach through the East Midlands health and care community. The Senate membership comprises patients and carers with strategic experience in patient involvement and the co-production of health and care services. The Senate provides expert input and advice to HIEM programmes ensuring that patient involvement and co-production are at the heart of the organisation.

In this blog Senate member Susan Edge shares her experience as well as pivotal moments from her time being part of the Senate.

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I joined the PPI Senate with Health Innovation East Midlands (HIEM) in 2015 following my retirement from my fulltime career in education and training. I wanted to make a difference within healthcare innovation where Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) has a crucial role to play in ensuring that new technology and innovations are acceptable and accessible to patients. Prior to joining the Senate, I held a governing body role with my local (what was then) Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) with responsibility for PPI. It was during this role that I realised how crucial patient and service users’ voices were for achieving successful health and care outcomes for patients. I am so pleased I applied and was successful in becoming a Senate member and latterly, Senate Co-chair. I’ve been involved in some exciting activities, such as selection panels and advising innovators and programme leads on how to embed best practice PPI, to name a few.  

Being part of the PPI Senate is like having a human reference library that you can talk to when you need expert patient insight on any PPI issues that may come to your attention. Members are passionate and knowledgeable about involvement and understand the connection between high quality PPI and improving equitable health outcomes. This is not surprising given the diverse health and care experiences of members, and those they care for, which have often triggered their involvement in PPI. Senate members are also caring and supportive of each other, often working together as a team to advocate for PPI and health equity. A dedicated public involvement team at HIEM provide steer and support and Senate meetings are invigorating and inspiring, and also a safe space for exploring ideas that you might want to pursue in other forums where you wear a PPI hat! 

These are ‘interesting times’ to be a Senate representative for Lincolnshire. The county’s rural and low-density population face many challenges and inequalities including practical access to health and care, digital exclusion, social isolation, health literacy issues and economic deprivation. Developing a high-quality workforce to deliver services is also a major challenge but so desperately needed by the area’s diverse population. As a Lincolnshire Senate member, you have fantastic and privileged opportunities to raise awareness about these local challenges and inequalities in discussions with healthcare leaders and innovators. You also have opportunities to advocate for greater public involvement to help to address them. 

If you feel you have the magical combination of lived experience, PPI insight and local knowledge, please apply to become our next PPI Senate member for Lincoln/shire! I have found it to be an enjoyable experience where I have met lots of new people and learnt about cutting edge innovations across the region and you can too!  

I hope my blog has helped to encourage you and I wish you all the best of luck. If you would like an informal chat about the role, please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..