The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has today launched a 12-week consultation on how to best engage and involve patients in the Agency’s work.

The responses will help inform the MHRA’s future engagement with patients and the public.

The MHRA wants to adopt a more systematic approach to listening to and involving patients. They want to make sure that the patient voice is more clearly heard when safety issues, concerning medicines or medical devices, are identified and in the licensing of new medicines.

The consultation will additionally look at how patients and the public would like the MHRA to communicate with them. It will also look at how patients and the public would like to communicate with the MHRA to raise concerns and how the MHRA can best respond.

The MHRA would like to hear from:

• patients

• patient group representatives

• healthcare professionals

The consultation, available online, will close at 11.45pm on Monday 7 October 2019.

Dr Ian Hudson, CEO, said:

“It is important that the MHRA continues to evaluate and improve how we can best communicate and engage with patients and the public.

“Patients are at the heart of everything we do and it’s essential that we hear their concerns and opinions to inform our important work protecting public health.

“Every response received will help us gain a better picture of how patients and the public want to engage with the MHRA. We hope to hear from as many people and patient groups as possible.”