Wound Care Patient Project 2025

What are we doing?

Picker, an independent health and social care research charity, has been commissioned to run a patient panel to understand the experiences and perspectives of patients with chronic or complex wounds and their carers.

We will be running a patient panel over two online workshops, and participants will be expected to attend both sessions. The patient panel session will be both audio and visually recorded with patient consent and Picker colleagues will also be taking notes throughout the sessions.

We want people with wounds to be at the heart of developing tools and resources that truly support their needs. Your experiences matter, and by sharing them, you can be involved in the development of support resources for wound care, improving care for others in the future.

You can participate if you have recent (within the last 2 years) or current experience of one of the following wounds, or are the carer of a patient with one of the following wounds:

• A wound that fails to progress through the normal stages of healing and remains open or non-healing for more than 4 to 6 weeks despite appropriate care
• Leg ulcers
• Diabetic foot ulcers
• Pressure ulcers (pressure sores)
• Surgical wound complications (delayed healing due to infection or dehiscence/where the wound has reopened)
• Superficial and second-degree burns
• Post-surgical wounds and surgical wound complications
• Traumatic wounds
• Skin tears/lacerations
• Oncology wounds
• Cavity wounds – A cavity wound is a deep wound that creates a hollow space in the tissue. It often occurs due to severe injury, infection, or after a surgical procedure.
• Moisture-Associated Skin Damage (MASD) – MASD happens when the skin is exposed to too much moisture for a long time, leading to irritation, inflammation, and breakdown. It can be caused by sweat, urine, wound fluid, or prolonged contact with wet dressings.

Please contact us if you have another type of wound or are not sure if your wound is one of those listed above but you are interested in taking part.

The patient panels will take place on Tuesday 13th May and Wednesday 25th June 2025 and both sessions will be a half-day session.  Exact timings are to be confirmed depending on the availability of our patient participants.  During the sessions we anticipate that we will cover the following:

• Your patient/carer experience and journey
• Your preferences and dislikes about your experience
• What information you would have liked to be available and the format that should come in (online, printed, pictorial, written text)

Participants will be reimbursed for their time attending the panels with £150 in the form of ‘Love2Shop’ or Amazon electronic gift voucher or an electronic bank transfer into the patients nominated bank account.

Do I have to take part?

• No – participation is voluntary; it is up to you whether or not to take part.
• You can decide not to take part or withdraw at any time, even after the focus group has started, without giving a reason.

How can I take part?

If you are interested in taking part, please register your interest via this short online survey:

As we want to have a range of people attending the panels it is possible that not everyone who expresses an interest in taking part will be selected. We will contact you to let you know. For those who are selected to take part in a group, you will be asked to review and sign an online consent form before the first patient panel commences. 

What will happen if I take part?

• What you say in the patient panel will be kept entirely confidential. There will be 6-8 people in the group and everyone in the group will agree to keeping any information shared in the group to themselves.
• No identifying information (such as your name) will be shared with anyone outside of the patient panel, and you can sign up using a pseudonym (fake name) if you wish.
• We will only ever share your views anonymously as part of our research.
• Your personal information will not be shared with anyone unless required by law, where there is clear overriding public interest, or if something you say indicates that you or anyone else is at risk of immediate harm.

What will happen to the information that I share?

The information that you share will be used by Picker to outline key themes to understand the journey of wound care patients, their experiences and perceptions as well as what they want from information, support and advice materials.  The transcript of both patient panels and the themes (and anonymous quotes) will be written up in a report.  We will remove any information that could identify you from the report findings.

Any questions?

For any queries or if you require further information, please contact us by emailing Programmes@PickerEurope.ac.uk, with the subject line ‘Patient Panel’.

Alternatively, you can speak directly with Cheryl, our Senior Project Manager, by calling 01865 208136. If you prefer not to complete the form or are unable to, Cheryl will be happy to assist you.

Privacy notice

Picker complies with Data Protection Laws including the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018, as well as the Market Research Society’s (MRS) Code of Conduct.  Our privacy notice is available at: https://picker.org/cookies-privacy. Any sensitive or confidential material is stored securely in line with our data protection policy which can be viewed here.

Your personal details (name and contact information) from the patient panels will be kept securely until the project is complete, after which they will be securely destroyed.