People hoping to follow the HSE’s Public and Patient Partnership Conference today should use its online registration route rather than travel to Croke Park without an existing place. In-person registration is closed, according to the official conference hub, which lists a livestream beginning at 9:30am on Thursday 15 October. [1]

The fourth annual conference brings together patients, service users, professionals, advocates and others to examine how partnership can become part of the way health and social care is planned and delivered. [1] The practical question for an online viewer is how an individual account of using a service can lead to a decision that changes that service.

Which time should viewers use?

The conference hub gives the overall day as 8:30am–5pm and specifically identifies 9:30am as the livestream start. The HSE staff events page lists a 9am event time. [1][2] For joining online, use the livestream instruction and the joining information supplied after registration, rather than assume the earliest advertised time is the broadcast start.

Open the registration link from the official hub, confirm the event name and date, and keep the joining instructions somewhere easy to find. This guide reports the organiser’s listing; it does not guarantee that late registration remains open or that every session will be broadcast. Check those details before rearranging your day.

What to listen for

The programme is intended to include patient and service-user partners as speakers, presenters, panellists, workshop facilitators and poster presenters. The HSE staff listing identifies compassionate leadership and lived-experience contributions to policy among the subjects speakers will address. [1][2]

A useful way to follow a case study is to write down three things: what people using the service said needed to change, what the organisation then did, and how it will know whether that change helped. That keeps attention on a process readers can understand, rather than treating participation as an attendance count or an endorsement of every decision discussed.

Viewing with care

The organisers warn that some experiences discussed may be difficult or emotional, especially for people with their own experience of health and care. They provide pppconference@hse.ie for programme, access and participation questions. [1] If this applies to you, leave room to pause your viewing and choose the sessions that are useful for you.

Avoid placing somebody else’s identifiable health details into a public event chat. Use the organiser’s instructions for questions and participation. A conference discussion is also different from an appointment about an individual’s care: questions about personal treatment need the appropriate care team.

The Press has not attended the conference or assessed its outcomes. Any later report should distinguish an announced intention, a speaker’s account and a change that has actually been implemented.