Marlene Winfield, OBE, is a campaigner for patient empowerment. She helps people through the labyrinths of the National Health Service and related institutions. In a career spanning decades, she has changed thousands of lives and prompted reform to breaking down some of the brick walls so many of face when seeking health care. In the 1980s, she ran a campaign that enabled three thousand British women get compensation through the American courts for injuries from a faulty contraceptive. Her 1990 book on whistleblowing led to the setting up of Public Concern at Work (Protect), a free legal advice centre for employees with ethical concerns.
Her research into the plight of carers in West London in the 1990s led to the setting up of new support services in four London boroughs. In recent years she has been the Vice Chair of the Thalidomide Trust, supporting people born with severe disabilities due to a medicine given to pregnant women, and a Non-executive Director of the Professional Record Standards Body, setting standards for a variety of electronic patient records. This includes making ‘patient goals’ a compulsory part of every NHS record. She is currently advising NHS England on content and use of the emergency electronic record that every patient in England has. She is also writing an Action Plan for using digital tools to help people with long-term health conditions live the most normal and healthy lives possible.
Join Marlene Winfield with Humphrey Hawksley in a Goldster Magazine Show that will try to clear the fog and confusion about how we can best navigate the NHS and our own health and well-being – 1pm Tuesday April 2nd 2022.