The role of patient groups in primary and secondary health care in England is to contribute to good clinical practice and help decide how services are delivered, leading to improvements in patient care. Their remit is to be involved, not as end recipients of consultations, but as partners in co-producing good quality health services which meet patient needs.

This report, part of a four-part series investigating how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the lives of d/Deaf and Disabled people, looks at patient participation in lockdown, specifically how patient groups involved their patients during the pandemic, drawing on the experiences of five experts by experience who are both patients and lay members of patient groups.