About us

The Patient Voices Network is a community of BC patients, families, caregivers and others who are using their experiences to influence change in BC’s health care system. There are over 1000 Network members committed to working towards better health care at the individual and the system level.

The Network is led by ImpactBC in collaboration with Patients as Partners, Ministry of Health. ImpactBC is a non-profit organization supporting health care improvement in our province, using evidence-based methods with a strong emphasis on the patient voice. Patients as Partners is a policy and philosophy of the BC Ministry of Health, first outlined in the 2007 Primary Health Charter. Its work is guided by a provincial committee and carried out through organizations and agencies in the community.

The guiding principle of Patients as Partners is that patients should always be partners in health care: collaborating with health care professionals to improve their own health as individuals, and having a voice in how health care is delivered in BC. In support of this, the PVN works with a broad range of partners including the Ministry of Health, health authorities, the BC Medical Association, the General Practice Services Committee, along with non-governmental and community organizations.

Why is this important?

We are all patients. Everyone accesses the health care system at some point in their lives. Many of us have also supported family members and friends in their journeys through the health system.

As experts in our own lives, we believe that patients can provide health system administrators and care providers with important information about how to best serve them and involve them as partners in their own care.

Nothing about me without me! 

- unofficial Patients as Partners motto