Involving older people in improving general hospital care.

User involvement is high on the NHS agenda. At King's College Hospital, London, older people helped to develop the Improving Hospital Care for Older People project by producing teaching and learning materials for staff using e-learning. The project was set up by holding focus groups with older people. Staff surveys were also conducted to explore views and identify issues to be addressed. Older people's representatives were selected and directly involved in developing learning materials. This article describes the process of working together and includes the personal reflections of some of the key players. It discusses barriers to effective user involvement work between staff and older people, and identifies some benefits and opportunities presented by this approach.