I have worked to improve patient experience and outcomes in Shropshire for eight years, since I stopped working full time. I live with several long term conditions and have had a number of operations in the last ten years. I have a diagnosis of early onset mixed dementia at a fairly early stage, and medication means you probably would not notice, at least on good days.
I am involved with Patient Engagement Panels at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust (as chair), the Shropshire Community Trust, and Shropshire CCG.
I helped establish the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Dementia Action Alliance, of which I am Chair, in 2014, and I led the development of Healthwatch Shropshire back in 2013.
George has worked on a Patients in Control project to co-design and co-facilitate workshops for commissioners across Midlands and East, to influence the way services are designed around patients in the future.
He is a member of the Dementia UK 'Lived Experience Advisory Panel' (LEAP). George is setting up groups in the DEEP network in Shropshire and is a member of the Dementia Diaries Project.
He is passionate about putting patients at the heart of everything the NHS does, through co-production at national and local levels and through his work he hopes he can influence change. George thinks he prefers the term patient activist as opposed to patient leader, but perhaps he aspires to be both.
George blogs about living as well as he can with Dementia.
