By Rachel Power

We are less than two weeks away from Patient Partnership Week 2025, our week-long exploration of what true partnership with patients can and should look like. But this isn’t an awareness week, it’s about listening and taking action.

Because here we are: one year into a new government. A 10-Year Health Plan on the horizon. An overstretched health and care system under persistent pressure. The stakes for patients have never been higher.

At times like this, it’s tempting to turn inwards and focus on systems, workforce, budgets, and delivery. But healthcare decision-making cannot afford to push patients to the sidelines. When systems are under strain, partnership is not a luxury. It’s the lever that can create better outcomes, more efficient services, and fairer care. And it starts with power: who holds it, who shares it, and how we reimagine care around those who live it every day. As the Secretary of State for Health and Social care recently said, “the patient is king.”

Patient Partnership Week, taking place this year between 30th June and 4th July, is about exploring how we shift the balance to make these words a reality.

Each free-to-attend virtual session dives into real-life ways that patients can be equal partner in appointments, innovation, policymaking, and in the structures of care delivery.

We’ll be joined by patients, NHS leaders, clinicians, policymakers, and campaigners, all united by a conviction that the system works better when it works with patients, not for them.

We know there are barriers to working in this way. Meaningful partnership requires a shift in mindset, infrastructure, and culture. It means challenging old hierarchies and building new forms of accountability. But the alternative, carrying on with business as usual, is failing too many patients, too often.

So, join us. Bring your voice, your experience, and share your questions in the sign-up form. Because when patients have power, we all stand to gain.

Register now for free and be part of the conversation.

Patient Partnership Week is just one part of our ongoing mission to centre patient voices in health and care. As the 10-Year Health Plan starts to be implemented, your donation will help us make sure the conversations we have during this week continue to shape the future of care with patients at the core.

If you believe in a system that works in genuine partnership with patients, please consider donating today.

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