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HEARD by Avma

Join us in building our new pilot to help people better understand their rights in healthcare, navigate healthcare systems with confidence, and find the support they need when they’ve been harmed.

Help us provide the right support for people affected by avoidable harm

We’re looking for people with lived experience to help shape a new initiative to help others navigate healthcare more safely and confidently, and better understand their rights.

If you’ve experienced avoidable medical harm, struggled to raise concerns, felt unheard, or found it difficult to access support, we’d like to hear your story and use it to shape future improvements.

Every year, we speak to thousands of people whose lives have been changed by avoidable harm in healthcare. Many tell us the same things:

  • “I didn’t know what questions to ask.”
  • “I didn’t realise I had a right to challenge that decision.”
  • “I wish I’d known where to go for help sooner.”

These experiences sit at the heart of HEARD by Avma, a new initiative to help people better understand their rights in healthcare, navigate healthcare systems with confidence, access support, and understand their options when things go wrong.

But before we build it, we want to listen. That’s why we’re inviting patients, families, carers, and communities to take part in a series of online co-creation workshops.

How your experience can help us

In our workshops, together we’ll explore the barriers people face navigating healthcare systems, experiences of speaking up or raising concerns, awareness of rights, support, and escalation routes, what information people wish they’d known sooner, and what you think would help other people feel safer, more informed, and more confident.

The learning you share with us will help shape a future HEARD by Avma pilot programme. Your involvement will make sure the pilot is informed by the people it is intended to serve.

Why does this matter?

Research, enquiries, and patient safety reviews continue to highlight recurring themes: people not feeling listened to, uncertainty about rights and consent, lack of awareness of support, and barriers faced by communities that are often under-represented.

HEARD by Avma aims to complement wider patient safety initiatives, including Martha’s rule and the Harmed Patient Pathway, by helping more people understand their rights, know where to turn for independent support, and gain more confidence to speak up when something doesn’t feel right — because patient safety initiatives can only be effective if people know they exist and understand how to use them.

What does it involve?
  • Time required: Up to two hours
  • Format: Online workshops using trauma-informed facilitation
  • How we’ll support you: Compassionate listening and providing a safe space for you to share your stories, thoughts, and challenges
  • Compensation: £40 per session

Is it for you?

If you feel that your voice hasn’t always been heard in healthcare and you’d like to help shape HEARD by Avma, we’d love to hear from you. We’re particularly keen to hear stories from:

  • people who have personally experienced avoidable medical harm,
  • people who have lost someone due to avoidable medical harm,
  • people from Black, Asian, and minoritised ethnic communities,
  • neurodivergent and neurodiverse people,
  • disabled people and those living with long-term health conditions,
  • LGBTQIA+ people,
  • care-experienced young people,
  • carers, kinship carers, and family members, and
  • anyone from any group or community that faces barriers to being heard or accessing the support they need.

Together, we can help ensure that more people feel informed, empowered, heard, and better able to exercise their rights.

Register your interest in HEARD by Avma