Whose interests do lay people represent? Towards an understanding of the role of lay people as members of committees

Increasingly, lay people are appointed as members to health service committees. The term 'lay' is used loosely and the reasons for involving lay people are seldom clearly defined. This paper argues that the different roles that lay people play need to be explicitly defined in order for their contributions to be realized. Although lay members of health service committees are generally assumed to be working for patients' interests, our observations lead us to think that some lay people tend to support professionals' or managers' interests rather than patients' interests as patients would define them. We suggest that lay people fall into three broad categories: supporters of dominant (professional) interests, supporters of challenging (managerial) interests and supporters of repressed (patient) interests. These alignments should be taken into account in appointments to health service bodies. Further research is needed on the alignments and roles of lay members.