Early in 1995 the Patient Empowerment Focus Group of the NHS Executive commissioned the King's Fund Centre to run a workshop on patient empowerment. The seminar was designed to meet three objectives: to develop a working definition of what is meant by patient empowerment; to identify probable component parts of a strategy to achieve patient empowerment in the NHS and identify where responsibility for their achievement should lie; and to take a preliminary view of indicators of successful outcomes of the strategy. This report summarises the proceedings and presents the main recommendations which emerged. Two themes occurred: the empowerment of individual patients receiving care; and the empowerment of user organisations and the public to represent their views to policy and decision makers.