Healthwatch Voices
Issue 4, Spring 2014
Contact us
Telephone: 0800 520 0640 (free from landlines)
Email:
Online: www.healthwatchdevon.co.uk
By post: Healthwatch Devon, Freepost RTEK-TZZT-RXAL,
First Floor, 3 & 4 Cranmere Court, Lustleigh Close,
Matford Business Park, Exeter EX2 8PW
Contents
1-2 From the Exec’s Desk
2 Message from the boardroom
2-3 Our first AGM
3-4 Meet our new Board of Trustees
4-6 Healthwatch explores ‘the right to be involved’
7-9 Speaking out on Care.data
9-10 Southwest Ambulance Service
10-15 News from our partners
15-16 What the Health!
From the Exec’s desk
Thank you!
One year on from the start of Healthwatch Devon, we'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who has helped to get the new organisation up and running.
The Community Council of Devon has been hugely supportive, acting as our parent body while we find our feet. Our delivery partners, whose updates are featured elsewhere in this newsletter, have helped us to connect with health and social care service users right across Devon. But most of all, it has been the general public who have brought Healthwatch alive, through their feedback on the health and care issues that matter to them.
Our goal
Over the last year, Devon residents have given us their views on maternity services, GP out of hours services, care homes, community hospitals and more. We have been able to pass those views on to health service planners and managers - telling them what you think so that they can get a better understanding of what works and what doesn't.
Some issues are controversial - with political and financial pressures creating huge changes in the way services are delivered. In the midst of debates that can be fierce, Healthwatch is determined not to take sides. We don't want to pick fights or point the finger. Our goal is simply to give people the chance to have their say, and to encourage service providers to listen.
The difference we make
Does our work make a difference? We think it does. A recent example would be our work on the care.data scheme. NHS England’s plan for a national database, holding the personal medical records of all NHS patients. The plan was that patients would automatically be opted in to the scheme. We thought it important that people should have an informed choice about how their records are stored and used. Pressure from across the Healthwatch network, based on feedback from patients, helped to get the scheme deferred until the autumn. This will give us all more time to understand what is being proposed, and to think about our options.
At a more local level, we are working with young people from the lesbian, gay and transgender community - helping some very vulnerable individuals to speak out about their experiences of seeking help from the NHS. That particular opportunity would not have come about without Healthwatch.
We also know that many of the people who have spoken to Healthwatch advisers based in their local Citizens’ Advice Bureau have appreciated the advice and support that they have received.
Join in, speak out!
As we move into our second year, we aim to reach more people, and build a greater volume of public opinion on local health and care services. You can visit our website to see the consultation and engagement events that we are running. You can join 1,000 other Devon residents, and follow us on Twitter. Or you can phone or write in to give us your views on health and care issues you think we should know about.
Keep that feedback coming!
Miles Sibley, Executive Director, Healthwatch Devon
Message from the boardroom
As the first year of Healthwatch Devon comes to an end we have been getting ready to hand this new Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on to the first elected board of trustees after the Annual General Meeting on March 19th. It is exciting to see that there is broad and growing support for a strong and co-ordinated voice for the public about their health and social care as the new Healthwatch membership continues to grow.
We have also recently welcomed additional co-opted members to the interim board. This means more volunteer capacity of Healthwatch to work alongside our strategic partners and lead on our priority projects. We look forward to all the Healthwatch volunteers being and feeling an active part of our work, when gathering or sharing information to inform decisions by commissioners about our public services. In particular there will be an advisory forum soon starting in Healthwatch which will help support and co-ordinate this work.
The plans for next year will be presented to members at the AGM but it is clear that we also need to remain flexible to support and encourage the public voice as substantial changes are proposed, for example, day services, residential care and also the future role of community hospitals.
John Rom, Interim Chairman of the Shadow Board
Our first Annual General Meeting
Just after Christmas, Healthwatch Devon - still less than a year old - took the momentous step of becoming registered as a charity in its own right. The next step was a membership drive that brought in over 250 new members in a matter of weeks. From there, we went to our first Annual General Meeting, at which a new Board of Trustees was elected.
The meeting heard about Healthwatch Devon’s achievements during its first year of operation, and was presented with outline plans for year two. David Humphries, a Healthwatch Devon volunteer from north Devon spoke about his involvement in the Care Closer to Home initiative, and a short film enabled young people from the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community to talk about their experience of seeking help and support from the NHS.
We are delighted to announce the election of the following trustees to the Healthwatch Devon Board:
• Hilary Ackland
• John Connolly
• Andy Hutton
• David Rogers
• John Rom
• Sue White
• Rosemary Whitehurst
We would like to thank the following for their advice, guidance and practical support during our crucial first year of operation
• Liz Hankin
• Steve Carefull
• Carol Brown
Meet our new Board of Trustees
Thank you to all our members who voted in our first election. We are pleased to announce that our new elected board members are:
Hilary Ackland
Hilary was an associate professor of education policy and qualitative research at Exeter University. Since retiring she has been a carer to her husband who has Parkinson’s disease. Formerly Hilary was a member of leadership group for LINk Devon.
John Connolly
John’s early career included engineering and project management in the construction industry. Latterly he was a director in several major utility and rail companies. He has extensive experience of businesses trying to improve their performance.
Andy Hutton
Andy was a GP for nearly 30 years and is fully aware of the good, and not so good, things about health and social care provision. He has extensive
knowledge of how the NHS works from the inside and from the patient side.
David Rogers
David is a member of the Healthwatch England Committee. He is also the immediate past chair of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board with a responsibility for the communications to other organisations and the media
John Rom
John recently retired from the NHS having worked for them since the 1970’s. He was a health services manager in different roles across central and southern England and was responsible for service change and improvement
Sue White
Sue has working in various parts of the County in health and social care delivering both children and adult services. As a provider and commissioner she has experience of the mixed economy of care, managing budgets and seeking grant funding.
Rosemary Whitehurst
Rosemary has worked both professionally and voluntarily to enable the voice of families, communities and service users to be heard by commissioners and providers of services. She is a former lay member of LINk Devon and vice-chair of Carers UK.
Healthwatch Devon explores the right to be involved
Healthwatch England believes that everyone should have the right to be involved in the decisions that affect health and care services within their community.
At Healthwatch Devon, we want to give a voice to service users in Devon and encourage them to speak out on their experiences. We can then pass on the feedback to commissioners, helping them to hear what service users have to say.
Here are just a few examples of how we are working to achieve that.
Volunteering in Torrington
Since last summer, Healthwatch Devon has been working with the Transforming Torrington Together project to enable residents and the wider community to have their say on local services.
The multi-agency project is a shared vision between the Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust and the Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group. The aim is to find ways to bring treatment and care for patients closer to home, ideally through an expanded community rehabilitation and nursing team.
Healthwatch Devon was invited to be part of a task group to help gather the views of the local community. It gave us a great opportunity to work with a team of volunteers, undertaking a survey to gather public opinion.
We asked two of our volunteers, Judith Ward and Allin Bewes, to tell us how they found the experience.
Here’s what they said:
“Being a volunteer is a really valuable experience for me. I found it a refreshing change to know that people are being listened to. The voice of the local community has been heard and Healthwatch Devon are facilitating this process. I am looking forward to doing more for Healthwatch Devon and the local community through my involvement in the oversight group”. Judith Ward, Healthwatch Devon Volunteer.
“I am delighted to have taken part in bringing the questionnaire to the people. It has given Devon folk a say in the future of local services in the community. People really do need to know that it’s not that services are ending; but that they are being provided on a daily basis at home, or wherever is necessary for better care. Time will tell if this project makes a difference. I will do my utmost on the oversight group to make sure that any change is for the best. If you find your care is going wrong, don’t sit at home and worry about it – come and tell Healthwatch!” Allin Bewes, lay member of Torrington Community Cares oversight group.
Healthwatch Devon’s volunteers collected 179 survey responses from the Torrington Community. Their efforts have contributed to a report, with recommendations, which is being presented to the Torrington Cares Oversight Group.
Engagement
Patients and service users are best placed to say what they need. So if a health or social care commissioner wants to improve or develop their services, our engagement service can help them to gather feedback to inform their decisions.
Working with a range of delivery partners, we can run anything from an on-line survey to a whole series of public meetings or focus groups to take soundings on proposals for new services or changes to existing ones. Sometimes we will go out to the general public, or we can home in on specific groups of service users.
In recent months, we have helped commissioners to hear people’s views on matters such as maternity services, GP out of hours services, help for housebound patients, support for young carers and more. We are pleased that commissioners want to take soundings from patients and service users, and delighted to see those views being fed into the planning and design of new services.
What the Health! radio show
Our children and young people engagement worker, Aggie Szpinda, is working with Totnes community radio (Soundart Radio 102.5fm) to host monthly radio shows specifically for children and young people.
The show which has been airing on the 3rd Saturday of each month at 10am, provides information on various health and care topics and encourages young people to speak out on their experiences and ask questions directly to professionals during each show.
If you are not local to Totnes you can listen online at www.soundartradio.org.uk.
Speak out!
Anyone is able to tell us about any health or care service at any time. You can do this in a variety of ways:
• Phone 0800 520 0640 (free from landlines)
• Online at www.healthwatchdevon.co.uk
• On Twitter @HwDevon
• On Facebook search Healthwatch Devon
• Pop into your local Citizens Advice Bureau and speak to your local Healthwatch Champion
We want to hear about your experiences, good or bad, of health and care services that you use. It could be about any of the issues covered in this newsletter, or anything else you think we should know about.
Keep those comments coming!
Take part in this month’s survey
Do you find it easy to see your GP?
If you couldn’t see your GP, where would you go?
Healthwatch Devon wants to know whether people in Devon understand the local health services available to them; and where they go for medical information, advice and treatment.
By getting feedback about the choices you make we will be able to see what is working well, and where services need to improve.