healthwatch herefordshire quarter 3 report 2016-17 · 1 healthwatch herefordshire quarter 3 report...
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Healthwatch Herefordshire
Quarter 3 Report 2016-17
Contents
1. Introduction Page 2
2. Information & Advice Page 4
3. Engagement Page 7
4. Healthwatch Activity Page 10
5. Communications Page 17
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1. Introduction
Healthwatch Herefordshire is the independent body who champions the
voice of the people of Herefordshire on Health & Social Care issues.
The contract outcomes we strive to achieve are:
Outcome 1 – Local people are aware of Healthwatch Herefordshire, understand its purpose and
how to access it for help and support
Outcome 2 - Local people are empowered to give their views and influence decisions to improve
health and social care services
Outcome 3 – Individuals are able to make informed choices about their health and care as a result
of information and advice provided by HWH
Outcome 4 – The views and experiences of local people influence commissioning decisions to
improve health and social care service
Outcome 5 - Healthwatch Herefordshire is an independent organisation accountable to the people
it serves
Outcome 6 – Healthwatch Herefordshire is good value for money
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Healthwatch Quality Statements
Healthwatch England have worked with the Local Healthwatch Network and Leeds Becket University to develop and pilot a list of Quality Statements. Healthwatch Herefordshire was one of the pilot Healthwatch’s that used the statements to evaluate our work, effectiveness and impact booth through an internal self-assessment and also as a stakeholder perception exercise. The aim of these statements are to provide Healthwatch England, local Healthwatch and commissioners with a common understanding of who we are and what we do. Adopting a more consistent approach to our work will enable us to deliver the best possible service for the public, identify where we are making the biggest impact, and learn from one another. The quality statements are: Community voice and influence:
Promoting and supporting the involvement of local people in the commissioning, the provision and scrutiny of local care services.
Enabling local people to monitor the standard provision of local care services and whether and how local care services could and ought to be improved.
Getting the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experience of local care services and importantly to make these views known.
Making a difference locally:
Making reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved. These should be directed to commissioners and providers of care services and shared with Healthwatch England.
Formulating views on the standard of provision and whether and how the local care services could and ought to be improved. Share these views with Healthwatch England.
Informing people:
Providing advice and information about access to local care services so choices can be made about local care services.
Relationship with Healthwatch England:
Making recommendations to Healthwatch England to advise the Care Quality Commission (CQC), to conduct special reviews or investigations direct to the CQC; and to make recommendations to Healthwatch England to publish reports about particular issues.
Providing Healthwatch England with the intelligence and insight it needs to enable it to perform effectively.
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2. Information & Advice
Number of enquiries October 1st – December 31st 2016: 30
The following graphs represent information about the 30 enquiries received.
Quality Statement - Informing people:
Providing advice and information about access to local care services so choices can be made about local care services.
Quality Statement - Making a difference locally:
Making reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved. These should be directed to commissioners and providers of care services and shared with Healthwatch England.
Formulating views on the standard of provision and whether and how the local care services could and ought to be improved. Share these views with Healthwatch England.
Relationship with Healthwatch England:
Providing Healthwatch England with the intelligence and insight it needs to enable it to perform effectively.
Complaint35%
Concern42%
Point of view3%
Request for Information
19%
Whistleblowing1%
Q3 Type of Feedback
Complaint
Concern
Point of view
Request for Information
Whistleblowing
Safe, dignified and quality service
25%
Access35%
Information and Education
15%
To be listened to7%
Choice3%
Essential services12%
Healthy Environment3%
Healthwatch Consumer Principles
Safe, dignified and quality service
Access
Information and Education
To be listened to
Choice
Essential services
Healthy Environment
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Enquiries by Organisation Q3 2016-17
Q2 2016-17
Q1 2016-17
Q4 2015-16
Q3 2015-
16
2Gether NHS Foundation Trust 2 1 0 3
Mental Health 2 0 0 3 2
Community Equipment 0 1 0 0
Dental Services 2 1 1 1 0
GP Services 6 7 12 12 11
Herefordshire Council - Adult Social Care & Assessments
5 7 3 4 9
Herefordshire Council - Children's Services 1 1 1 1
Residential/Nursing Homes 3 0 0 0
Homecare Providers 2 1 0 0 0
Pharmacy Services 0 1 0 0
Tertiary Care 0 1 1 0
Wales NHS - Cardiology 0 1 0 0
West Midlands Ambulance Service & Patient Transport
1 1 1 0 1
Wye Valley NHS Trust - Acute Care 3 4
10 8
Wye Valley NHS Trust - Cardiology 0 1
Wye Valley NHS Trust – Children’s OT 1 0
Wye Valley NHS Trust – Neurology 1 0
Wye Valley NHS Trust – Geriatrics 1 0
Wye Valley NHS Trust – Orthopaedics 1 0
Wye Valley NHS Trust – PALS 1 0
Wye Valley NHS Trust - Community Nursing 1 0 1
Wye Valley NHS Trust – Endoscopy/Gastro. 2 1
Wye Valley NHS Trust - Hospital General 7 5 3
Wye Valley NHS Trust - Inpatients 1 0
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 23 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
4 4 45
6 67
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Q3 Themes
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Outcomes met:
Outcome 1 – Local people are aware of Healthwatch Herefordshire, understand its purpose
and how to access it for help and support
Outcome 2 - Local people are empowered to give their views and influence decisions to
improve health and social care services
Outcome 3 – Individuals are able to make informed choices about their health and care as a
result of information and advice provided by HWH
Organisations Healthwatch have made referrals to this quarter:
Onside advocacy and ICAS service, Herefordshire Carers Support, Herefordshire Council
Complaints, Herefordshire CCG complaints, Herefordshire Council Advice and Referrals Team,
Welfare Rights, WVT complaints & PALS, CAB, WISH, Health & Parliamentary Ombudsman, CQC.
Working with Healthwatch England:
Healthwatch routinely log all feedback in the Healthwatch Database, these anonymous themes
feed into the bank of information from the national Healthwatch Network and forms part of the
national picture of patient and public voice and informs the national work undertaken by
Healthwatch England.
Wye Valley NHS Trust - Outpatients 0 1
Wye Valley NHS Trust - A&E 0 1
Clinical Commissioning Group 3 3 0 3 8
Healthwatch 1 1 0 0 5
Herefordshire Carers Support 0 0 0 1
Voluntary Sector Organisations/Community Groups
3 0 0 2
NHS Opthalmology 1 0 0 0
NHS Business Services Authority & NHS England 0 0 2 2
Total Enquiries 30 47 35 37 53
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
Q3 15-16 Q4 15-16 Q1 16-17 Q2 16-17 Q3 16-17
Trajectory of enquiries over 15 months - highest 6 servcice areas for enquiries raised with Healthwatch
Wye Valley Trust GP Services Herefordshrie Council
HCCG Mental Health Other Primary Care
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3. Engagement
Sustainability and Transformation Plan for Herefordshire – Engagement with Patients, Service Users / Public through ‘Your Conversation’
The purpose is to gather people’s views on change and priorities in Healthcare for the
future given the context of the NHS 5 year forward view and the case for change - making
the NHS more sustainable.
Summary of activity undertaken by Healthwatch:
Your Conversation Survey - initial survey undertaken with Carers and Young Carers
both mailing list and discussions at Carers support groups (5000)
Carers in MIND (mental health and acquired brain injury service users and their
carers)
Online and via Social Media for individual responses from wider public
All Herefordshire Parish Councils (137)
Messages to all Parish Magazines
All Herefordshire Patient Participation Groups in Herefordshire (24)
Patient Engagement Event - Wye Valley NHS Trust
Alzheimer’s Society: Families and Carers
Voluntary Sector – 2 Conferences (240 organisations)
Media - Hereford Times and Ross Gazette
Talent Match (18-25s unemployed young people)
All Herefordshire Councilors – with Your Conversation survey
HOSC & HWBB – updates to members
Quality Statement - Community voice and influence:
Promoting and supporting the involvement of local people in the commissioning, the provision and scrutiny of local care services.
Enabling local people to monitor the standard provision of local care services and whether and how local care services could and ought to be improved.
Getting the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experience of local care services and importantly to make these views known.
Quality Statement - Making a difference locally:
Making reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved. These should be directed to commissioners and providers of care services and shared with Healthwatch England.
Formulating views on the standard of provision and whether and how the local care services could and ought to be improved. Share these views with Healthwatch England.
Relationship with Healthwatch England:
Providing Healthwatch England with the intelligence and insight it needs to enable it to perform effectively.
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Q3 Healthwatch Engagement events:
Wye Valley Trust Engagement ‘pop-
ups’ at Community Hospitals at Ross-
on-Wye, Leominster & Bromyard
(December & January)
Hereford County Hospital (December)
Patient Participation Group
Conference
Engagement Organised for January to February 2017:
Hereford Disability United STP
conference
Herefordshire Council Adult’s &
Wellbeing Forum for directorate staff
Children & Young People – Survey Hereford Sixth From College Intranet.
Healthwatch have developed a toolkit for Your Conversation engagement for
Children & Young People.
Herefordshire Council Autism Partnership Board (Adults & Young People)
Herefordshire Council Making It Real Board (Service User Forum)
In summary HWH will have targeted and undertaken work with the following groups:
The General Public, Patients, Carers, Young People, Mental Health, Voluntary Sector Groups, Patient Participation Groups, Parish Councils & the local media, as well as surveying patients / public at WVT Acute Hospital Hereford and the Community Hospitals in Ross-on-Wye, Bromyard and Leominster. The information Healthwatch have gathered from the public is being regularly publish on the website and also shared with the STP programme board via the STP communications and Engagement Group. www.healthwatchherefordshire.co.uk/your-conversation
Healthwatch and Clinical Commissioning Group Host a conference for all
24 Patient participation Groups in Herefordshire
Herefordshire Clinical Commissioning
Group hosted a jointly run engagement
conference with Healthwatch for the
Patient Participation Groups from the 24
GP surgeries across Herefordshire. As part
of the ongoing conversation with the public
that is feeding into the Sustainable
Transformation Plan as #YourConversation,
Healthwatch facilitated discussions at the
conference around 8 questions form the
STP your conversation survey
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Enter & View
Between May and July 2016, 8 Enter and View visits were carried out across Herefordshire gathering patient experience feedback, in 8 GP surgeries, from 227 patients.
The Enter & View visits showed that we are very fortunate in Herefordshire to have good Primary Care services. A minority of patients raised issues impacting negatively on their experience.
These are covered in full so that services can further improve but should be kept in proportion given that the vast majority of patients are very happy with their GP surgery.
Analysis led to the view that many of the few but common issues raised by patients, across practices, could be addressed by a combination of:
Effective and functioning information technology
Good personnel management and good customer service
Effective joint working between different NHS and social care providers,
and good patient engagement
Clear consistent policy
Many of the areas that patients raised may benefit from joint or strategic approaches and these are indicated in the full report.
Overall conclusion Patients surveyed in the 8 surgeries were overwhelmingly positive about the services they receive. A small number of common issues were raised that give useful feedback for Practices’ learning and development and for further service improvement.
Next Steps The participating 8 GP practices are already improving their practice based on patient feedback.
Other GP practices and PPG’s may wish to use the findings to reflect and look at where they may make improvements and learn from good practice elsewhere.
It is hoped that primary care successfully adapts to change, taking into account the patient voice, in this, and other pieces of work.
An executive summary and full thematic report will be available to view on the Healthwatch website shortly.
Outcomes Met:
Outcome 1 – Local people are aware of Healthwatch Herefordshire, understand its purpose and
how to access it for help and support
Outcome 2 - Local people are empowered to give their views and influence decisions to improve
health and social care services
Outcome 4 – The views and experiences of local people influence commissioning decisions to
improve health and social care service
Outcome 5 - Healthwatch Herefordshire is an independent organisation accountable to the people
it serves
Outcome 6 – Good value for money
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4. Healthwatch Activity
The Chair of Healthwatch and five board members represent Healthwatch and the public
voice of people in Herefordshire at the following key forums. The staff team also represent
Healthwatch at an operational level to feed in the issues from the members of the public
to commissioners and providers in order to improve the quality of patient experience and
ensure that the people’s voice is heard.
One of the key roles that Healthwatch perform, is to hold to account our stakeholders who
commission and provide health & care services. We approach this as a critical friend
through our presence, membership and strong links with; boards, committees,
performance & quality groups and forums. Whenever possible, we offer the views and
experiences of the public.
The following info graphic demonstrates the connections and influence Healthwatch staff
and board members have established and maintain across the Health & Social Care system
in Herefordshire.
Quality Statement - Community voice and influence:
Promoting and supporting the involvement of local people in the commissioning, the provision and scrutiny of local care services.
Getting the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experience of local care services and importantly to make these views known.
Quality Statement - Making a difference locally:
Making reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved. These should be directed to commissioners and providers of care services and shared with Healthwatch England.
Formulating views on the standard of provision and whether and how the local care services could and ought to be improved. Share these views with Healthwatch England.
Relationship with Healthwatch England:
Providing Healthwatch England with the intelligence and insight it needs to enable it to perform effectively.
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Examples of Healthwatch Influence & Challenge in Quarter 3
WVT Quarterly Quality Meeting with HWH: Met new deputy of nursing and deputy director of nursing at Wye Valley Trust. Purpose to continue previous relationship feeding WVT issues raised with HWH by patients about Wye Valley Trust Services.
Joint Primary Care Commissioning Board: Raised the point of lack of GP’s in changing the practice models going forward the Patient needs to be educated/informed who they will see for which treatment, there is funding available via the Practice Managers for training - this has now been approved. Raised the point the risk register was difficult to comprehend and might be misunderstood by the general public, being moved to confidential section of the meeting.
Cancer Board: Based on the information supplied by Breast Service Lead Clinician, Healthwatch enquired whether a contractual agreement was in place concerning BSP service or not to take place in Wye Valley Trust?. Chief Operating Officer agreed to review and come back with findings in a 30 day period. Also asked, the £140,000 (2014) raised by the public several years ago to allow Herefordshire women to have weekly Breast Screening Programme (BSP) clinics in Hereford not having to travel to Bromsgrove, why was this not operating smoothly?
2Gether NHS FT Board Meetings: Healthwatch asked a formal question about performance issues regarding IAPT in Herefordshire, and asked a formal question about Triangle of Care implementation in Herefordshire.
Stroke Programme Board: Healthwatch reiterated that the data needed to be
accurate & as up to date as possible as the hospital is judged on this data.
Non-Emergency Patient Transport Task & Finish Group: Queried the cost of the ‘LPP framework’ proposed and it is thought that a commission will be added to the costings within it.
Urgent Care Partnership:
1. Discharge project: Healthwatch asked about patient and carer input to this, there had been none yet. Relayed a patient story of discharge which had been recounted to me by a friend of the patient earlier in the week [a person who had op to remove bladder in Cheltenham (referred from WVT) and sent home with complex tubes/bag arrangement, he and wife shown how to do it but no District Nurse support. First night home he wakes in acute pain, can't manage, rings hospital who say don't call ambulance as you'll go to Gloucester. Had to go to Hereford A&E under own steam and on trolley for several hrs. Condition sorted and sent home - what will happen next. Anxiety is major for carer. Golden valley remote location.] Emphasised that while Healthwatch recognize the need to discharge patients, over-rapid or unsafe discharges don’t help the system and certainly not the patients and carers. Seen as a helpful story and worth exploring how to avoid this. Healthwatch asked what will this service actually look like if you are a person going to A&E. that is how will you know you’ve been seen by CAAD and re-directed. Re-emphasised the simplicity for people of going to A&E or walk-in compared to any other service and the potential negative of CAAD being that people still go to A&E and get sorted out… I mentioned the importance of
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tracking what happens to people re-directed and possibility of HWH contributing to evaluating this initiative.
Raised continuing of homecare packages during hospital stays was now being considered by the council which should help a lot – Herefordshire Council confirmed 2 weeks cover will be funded from July 17. The partnership colleagues as if this could be funded now. HC to explore.
2. In the communications item, Healthwatch emphasized the importance in the new Out Of Hours arrangements for a clear and specific update for third sector organisations who are in touch with many patients and carers directly. It was confirmed to make sure this is in the plan and actioned.
3. New CAAD service (clinical assessment and appropriate direction) now our local term for triage/streaming. Healthwatch raised the ongoing issue of A&E not referring to Taurus hubs (Extended hours GP) –assured this service will link to Taurus hubs. It was agreed that reasons for coming and what happens to re-directed people must be tracked. For HWH this is critical to future thinking and evidence about the Walk-in centre. I asked Ops Director CCG after the meeting what was happening about this aspect? A: Nothing would happen till New Year and there would be full consultation on any proposal.
4. Frailty Pathway – this is very connected to Urgent Care and an update was given. Healthwatch asked if it might be helpful to explore how the patients in a given week ended up there i.e. ‘reverse engineer’ the experience to understand better how to avoid it. General agreement this was a good idea.
Meeting with Herefordshire Council (HC) Adults Wellbeing Assistant Director of operations: This meeting was organised because Healthwatch gathered evidence from third sector organisations, carers and service users about the responsiveness and effectiveness of the Adult Social Care Advice and Referrals Team (ART) at Herefordshire Council. Healthwatch raised thematic issues from this evidence with HC by email and then a meeting was facilitated where Healthwatch brought in organisations to give constructive feedback and helpful suggestions for improvements to the system for service users. 1. Issues experienced with ART raised for inclusion in current review of the service
and pathway redesign (March 2017 implementation). Examples of practical changes which HC will look into: a simple form for referrals used across all agencies, a change to the in hours vs out of hours answer phone messages (some improvement already implemented), a memo to ASC staff about what self-funders who call ART should be advised to do.
2. HC suggested a solution towards improvement and ongoing assurance would be to set up a regular forum of some key organisations (those present plus Age UK plus mental health) to have 2 way feedback about how ART and wider ASC pathway is functioning throughout the redesign process and improvements. Items to be included for discussion and feedback are: the results of the ART review, continual 2 way performance review, pathway update and comment, clarity on expectations and timeframes of response by ART for assessments and from assessment to delivery of care, performance data from social services, concerns of 3rd sector organisation.
3. Discussed the role of training and development for ASC staff and involve the VCS, giving better understanding of agencies roles and also for VCS to benefit from training offered by the council. HC agreed this should be actioned and training opened up to the voluntary sector.
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Health & Social Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee: (HOSC) Healthwatch present a report of activity and summary of patients issues at each HOSC meeting. Healthwatch has reported on all service areas in Health & Social care and updated the committee regularly on the Healthwatch work on STP and engaging with the public in Your Conversation to feed into the STP process.
Prime Ministers GP Access Fund: Requested clarification based on prior meeting discussion would a change to the hours take place at the Hub November 8th. Taurus previously stated the Doctors rotas were updated until end December. As a result Taurus agreed the change will take affect from December 1st to provide the optimum service level for patients. Raised the query of annotating the monthly KPI’s when the hours are changed to see if there is a specific outcome, these results affect forward
CCG Primary Care Planning.
Queried why patients were not offered a text reminder similar to WVT and other hospitals? Healthwatch enquired as to cost of service from Taurus Finance = £900 pa. Based on this discussion, CCG and NHSE have come up with funding for this service, this will be implemented in March 2017 in an attempt to reduce missed appointments.
Asked where in the forward plans were Comms to inform patients across the community regarding the continuity of the Taurus Hubs in their current locations or not after April 1st 2017. This is a risk of 24,000 appointments p.a. going into alternative services.
Powys Community Health Council Meeting – cross Border Issues: Ccontribution to the discussions about workforce planning & recruitment, and discussions about WVT CQC reports and South Warwickshire Foundation Trust links. Explained the Healthwatch role in the STP engagement process.
Planned Care Programme Board: Queried why the Demand & Capacity work had not been completed, A: it is very complex, with a number of commissioners & a number of providers. Healthwatch stated that there was a need to ensure that there were sufficient resources in the community for the overweight & smokers to ensure that they had the support they needed to ensure they would be “fit for surgery” if the policy was adopted. Lisa Hope, the person writing the policy, has asked to meet with Healthwatch to hear HWH views on this policy affecting patients. A one page summary is being drafted on “Patient Access” Healthwatch have commented and contributed to this.
Reiteration of the concerns the HWH Board has about the potential refusal of treatment for some patients under the Fitness for Surgery Policy. In response it was stated that clear clinical need would override all other considerations. An appeals procedure will be established.
Healthwatch expressed concern about the process for writing of GP referrals seeming disorganised and potentially having an adverse effect on some patients, by increasing their hospital visits, increasing Referral to Treatment times and damaging the Hospital's efforts to achieve their targets. Queried what the implications were for patients if GP's referrals were returned by the hospital as being incomplete or inappropriate, as delays must be the result. Asked a range of questions about the Referral to Treatment figures & was encouraged by the data and responses.
Quarterly Meeting with west Midlands Ambulance Service: Raised the issue of cross-border protocols for clarification of the position. Raised issue about a patient complaint again & asking that it be investigated. Asked to receive the stats in the
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future when the targets are finalised so I can monitor how Herefordshire is doing within the region.
Golden Valley Practice Patient Participation Group Meeting: Healthwatch made all members aware of our role and as a result one member is interested in volunteering
for Healthwatch. Invited the group to the PPG conference in December to feed their views into STP process.
The Wye Valley Trust Board Meetings in Public: Healthwatch continue to attend these meetings tabling questions to the board which relate to patient experience and the performance of the trust. We have raised issues relating to the following in this quarter: o Asked again about the progress in the development of the Midwife Led Unit in the
light of the high numbers of C Sections performed in August. o Healthwatch stated that it was encouraging to see a big improvement in the ‘Two
Week Breast Symptomatic’ for July, but queried the comment in the report relating to a lack of a resilient service in certain areas.
o Asked what was being done to resolve the issues relating to Delayed Transfers Of Care of our Welsh patients
o Asked for details of a pilot mentioned in Chief operating Officer report concerning “Red & Green Days”
o Asked how widely used the Electronic Patient Records would be, i.e. would it link into GP Surgeries.
o Asked whether the month allocated for staff training on the Electronic Patient Records in the spring would be sufficient to allow time to operate the system effectively.
o Queried numbers of operations cancelled on the day. o Queried deterioration in the response times for dealing with complaints. o Queried the arrangements for senior leadership now working with South
Warwickshire Foundation Trust.
The Women’s Maternity Forum: Healthwatch contributed to the plans to improve
continuity of care for women in maternity services and supported the young mothers
attending to make their points to pout patient voice into the heart of delivering
services.
Herefordshire Council Children’s Wellbeing Network Event: Distributed Healthwatch
leaflets raising awareness of Healthwatch. Questioned: the staffing situation for
commissioner of Children’s Wellbeing, Timeline for short breaks procurement, In
Discussion on the challenge for safeguarding and the monitoring of CAFs by individual
VCS outlined that this system was not realistic with the huge demands on resources
which many groups would not have the staffing capacity to undertake.
Community Cohesion Meeting. Raised awareness to councillors and community groups about Healthwatch and its role.
Services for Independent Living AGM: Raised awareness of Healthwatch and its role to organisation partners and service users.
Face Values Board, Herefordshire Council Diversity: Healthwatch shared learning and information from community cohesion meeting attended, relationship building and networking. Sophie Lancaster event on 30th October – Suggested use of an excellent
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Outcome 1 – Local people are aware of Healthwatch Herefordshire, understand its purpose and how
to access it for help and support
Outcome 2 - Local people are empowered to give their views and influence decisions to improve
health and social care services
Outcome 3 – Individuals are able to make informed choices about their health and care as a result of
information and advice provided by HWH
Outcome 4 – The views and experiences of local people influence commissioning decisions to improve
health and social care service
Outcome 5 - Healthwatch Herefordshire is an independent organisation accountable to the people it
serves
Outcome 6 – Healthwatch Herefordshire is good value for money
pack of cards toolkit that make up a teaching project be distributed to all schools – Neville Meredith implementing this.
Sustainability & Transformation Plan Programme Board: Healthwatch has attended regularly, working on conversations with the public about STP and feeding in the views of Herefordshire people. Paul Deneen Independent Chair of Healthwatch submitted the following response to the draft Plan in October 2016:
‘I would wish to place on record our thanks to all involved in the writing and producing of the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sustainability and Transformation Plan (2016 - 2021).
Regarding the Plan itself, there has been active involvement across Herefordshire’s and Worcestershire’s Health and Social Care system which has involved Key Parties such as GP’s, Local Councils, Acute Hospital Trusts, Health and Care Trust and Mental Health Trust, Clinical Commissioning Groups, NHS England, Representation from both the Voluntary and the Community Sector and from both Healthwatch Herefordshire and Healthwatch Worcestershire.
There is no doubt that there will be a number of challenges as well as opportunities regarding the delivery of the Plan within the communities.
There will also be a series of engagement events/activities for patients and the public in Herefordshire to provide feedback on what will eventually be delivered.
In my view the sensitive issue of funding and the particular special case of rurality and rural sparsity is something which NHS England should take into account when it considers overall budget provisions. The agreed budget would need to fund the particular challenges involved within the rural counties of Herefordshire and Worcestershire regarding the delivery of its Plan for overall health and social care provision.
What is also important in this process is that there is honesty, transparency and openness, so that the public and patients are fully appraised and briefed on the implications and consequences of any final decision/s which is/are made by NHS England in relation to agreed budgets.
I also make a plea to NHS England to reduce the bureaucracy in relation to overall plans, so that there is one plan to be agreed, delivered and actioned.
In a recent *survey the question ‘What makes us proud to be British?’ the top answer was “The NHS’ Healthwatch Herefordshire values and appreciates the work undertaken by all the staff involved in the NHS and the wider Health and Social Care System across Herefordshire, and thank them for their dedication, commitment and professionalism.’
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Outcome 1 – Local people are aware of Healthwatch Herefordshire, understand its purpose
and how to access it for help and support
Outcome 3 – Individuals are able to make informed choices about their health and care as a
result of information and advice provided by HWH
Outcome 5 - Healthwatch Herefordshire is an independent organisation accountable to the
people it serves
Outcome 6 – Good value for money
4. Communications
Healthwatch in Local press and parish magazines
Healthwatch published an article for use in local magazines circulated to all parish
councils. This was to outline STP and Your Conversation and ask people to raise awareness
and undertake the online survey for your conversation by the end of February 2017.
Digital Analytics
The impact of our communications, events through engagement and online digital media
can be demonstrated on the next page.
If you would like to be on our newsletter and communications mailing list please subscribe
Here or email: [email protected]
Outcomes Met
Quality Statement - Community voice and influence:
Promoting and supporting the involvement of local people in the commissioning, the provision and scrutiny of local care services.
Quality Statement - Making a difference locally:
Making reports and recommendations about how local care services could or ought to be improved. These should be directed to commissioners and providers of care services and shared with Healthwatch England.
Relationship with Healthwatch England:
Providing Healthwatch England with the intelligence and insight it needs to enable it
to perform effectively.
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