Oonagh has been a patient representative in various capacities since 2005. She has participated in a range of activities at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust (e.g. PLACE assessments, infection-prevention committee, dementia-friendly assessments and local clinical excellence aware scoring) and currently attends Transformation Board meetings. She has participated in evaluating tenders for procuring clinical and healthcare support services (e.g. facilities management and patient transport) with the Trust with what was her local Ealing CCG. Oonagh was also a member of the London Ambulance Service patient council for 3 years. From her professional life in public-sector tendering, she has developed an interest in how public services such as healthcare, justice and welfare services can interact to serve their populations more effectively.
Her interest in health service quality-improvement activity was heightened by attending Sheffield Microsystems conferences and other quality focused events such as Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust’s QI sprint. She undertook the Kings Fund – facilitated programme for Barts Health NHS Trust on ‘Leading collaboratively with patients, communities and third sector’ in 2017. She is particularly interested in patient experience within acute-sector services, emergency/urgent care, cancer services and end-of-life care.