Public awareness and interest in community health councils

Community health councils were set up four years ago. They were an institutional innovation, with a remit to represent local community interests in the health services to those responsible for managing them and to facilitate communication between management and (potential) users of the health service. The cover of one CHC's annual report explains the service offered: 'We can make sure that the consumer's point of view is heard. We can help people who need information about the NHS and those who have a complaint about something which has gone wrong'. They might have added, as a caveat, that to do all this effectively, 'we need you'. This paper presents some information, from a recent national study of general practice (Cartwright and Anderson), about public awareness of an interest in community health councils.