July-August
Newsletter
HEALTHWATCH NEL—JULY-AUGUST NEWSLETTER 2014 July—August Newsletter 2014 Join us and read on to find out what we have in store for July & August 2014.
CONTENT
Page 1
We have moved!
Page 2
Executive Board
Page 3
Healthy Lives Healthy Futures (HLHF)
Page 4
Annual General Meeting Partner Programme
Page 5
Review of GP waiting times Discharge arrangements
Page 6
Volunteering Including Enter & View Cruse Bereavement Care (Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Louth Branch)
Page 7
Contact the team
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014
We have moved!
The waiting is over! On 16 June 2014, the office team moved from their first floor room at 60 Newmarket Street to 146 Freeman Street, Grimsby, DN32 7AN (the former Rayner’s building). We now occupy the left side frontage of the building and, as you can see, have clear signage for people to find us. It is great to be able to be visible and, we trust, more accessible to our local communities. We do thank Foresight for giving us the opportunity these premises present. If you have not realised, we now have our own dedicated telephone number with answerphone: (01472) 361459. We have also been joined from 4 July 2014 by Karen Smith, the Independent Complaints Advocate for North East Lincolnshire. This will help us to better join up support for people who may need help in complaining and following through the outcomes of this. Please note that if you need advice about making a complaint, you still need to ring 08088023000 as you can sometyimes be advised from that number without needing to involve the local Advocate. Please note that we are holding a low key opening of the new premises but, because of the space available, are restricting this to the office team and active volunteers. We are hoping this will give an opportunity for press/photo coverage of the wider HWNEL team. However, we would be happy for any subscriber to drop in and see us, especially if you have information about local health or social care services which you believe would be useful for HWNEL.
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014
Executive Board The Executive Board will be meeting on the following dates for the rest of this financial year: 25 September 2014 at Grant Thorold Library, Durban Road, Grimsby (11.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m.) 18 November 2014 at Business Hove, 13 Dudley Street, Grimsby 20 January 2015 at Freeman Street Resource Centre, Kent Street, Grimsby 19 March 2015 at Grimsby Neighbourhood Centre, 289A Weelsby Street, Grimsby Meetings will normally be at 12 noon for two hours unless indicated otherwise. All Board meetings are held in public and include a Question Time item at the start of proceedings. We are pleased to welcome Jane Mansfield to the Board. Jane has worked in local government in this area for some time mainly in housing and community services and will be valuable asset to the Board.
Jane writes: I am a local resident, having lived in Grimsby and Cleethorpes all my life. I am a mother of three lads (aged 18-21) and probably as a result of this have a strong interest in local sport especially football and cricket. After school I went to Leeds University and gained a degree and following that I started working for the Local Authority. I started as a trainee in the Housing Department and worked my way up through different positions and disciplines including area management; allocations and lettings; and homelessness and advice. After a period of writing policy and strategy related documents I moved to the corporate centre to undertake similar work. Other roles within the Council have continued with the same focus of working in a community setting, often supporting both individuals and groups ie within Neighbourhood Renewal Funding and Neighbourhood Management and Development. I am very excited about being accepted on the Board of Healthwatch and hope to be able to use my substantial work and personal experiences to both encourage local people to come forward with relevant issues and to have a meaningful voice in the provision of the local health and social care services that they receive We are also co-opting two young people on to the Board (subject to satisfactory clearances) and will provide full details once this process is completed.
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014
Healthy Lives Healthy Futures (HLHF) The public consultation on HLHF was launched on 30 June 2014. At this stage, there are just two matters up for consideration:
The location of hyperacute stroke services (with a proposal that the temporary arrangements at Scunthorpe General Hospital are made permanent). The location of children’s ear, nose and throat surgery (with a proposal that these are located at Diana Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby).
You can find full details of the consultation including background papers on the HLHF website: http://www.healthyliveshealthyfutures.nhs.uk/ Or you can request details by writing to: Freepost RSSJ-SAAB-KKUZ Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures 5 Saxon Court Europa Park Grimsby DN31 2UJ Or by email at: HLHF.team@nhs.net Or by calling on: 0800 915 5397 HWNEL has arranged a meeting to discuss the consultation with representatives of North East Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Groups. This will take place on 30 July 2014 at 2.00 p.m. at VANEL, The Elms, 22 Abbey Road, Grimsby. If you would like to attend this meeting, could you please let the office team know? In addition, we are intending to give advance notice of key questions that we would want addressing at the meeting. If after looking at the information provided, you have a question you could want putting to these representatives, would you please contact the office team by no later than 22 July 2014?
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014
Annual General Meeting We held our AGM on 16 June 2-14 and there were a total of 55 people present. We had representatives from 12 health and social care organisations holding stalls around the room, 6 of which were our new partners under the Partner Programme and this was included in press coverage in the Grimsby Telegraph on 25 June 2014. Did you see it? If not, we can forward details on request.
Partner Programme
The Partner Programme continues to grow and we now have eight organisations signed up:
Age UK North East Lincolnshire Alzheimers Society (North East Lincolnshire) Booth Lifehouse Foresight Friendship at Home Getting Hooked on Positive Activities (GHoPA) Harbour Place VANEL As this scheme goes forward you will see entries from Partners in this newsletter and on our Partners Page section of our website. Details of this scheme are included on our website under the Board Papers for 29 April 2014 or you can find out more by speaking to Paul Glazebrook, Partnership Co-ordinator.
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014
Review of GP waiting times You may be aware that the time it normally takes to see a GP was the key issue raised in our local survey earlier this year. This is a national as well as a local problem with an estimated shortfall of 10,000 GP’s nationwide. We have been considering the wider picture and how we might make a difference locally and our Executive Board is reconsidering our approach when it meets on 15 July 2014. Although we want to look at the problem from the professional perspective, our chief role is to reflect patient opinion by further involvement with local people. We will keep you posted on developments outlining how you can directly contribute to this important piece of work.
Discharge arrangements Healthwatch England is currently conducting an special inquiry into discharge arrangements (from hospital or residential units). There is a particular focus on the experiences of older people, mental ill health and homeless people. Locally we are contributing to the inquiry by talking to individuals and organisations in these areas about unsatisfactory arrangements especially where vulnerable people are being discharged without appropriate support being put into place. We would really value hearing from you if you have personal or family/friend experiences where you felt this discharge was not well planned or executed. All information supplied will be anonymised to protect the individuals concerned. We are planning to make our own submission by the end of July 2014 so we would welcome information as soon as possible and by no later than 27 July 2014.
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014
Volunteering Including Enter & View We are delighted to report that a programme of Enter and View work commenced at the end of May and that the team has visited three residential homes so far. The plan is to carry out two of these visits per month and to have a particular focus on treating people with dignity and respect. In addition, they have carried out one visit to a local GP practice. Plans are also underway to carry out visits to Diana Princess of Wales Hospital but this work will be carried out in conjunction with our Healthwatch colleagues in North Lincolnshire and East Riding of Yorkshire so that a trust -wide approach is given across Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust. On the wider issue of volunteering, we still need to grow our resources across all our activities: enter and view, engaging with people, research, reader’s panel and administrative support. One thing we want to stress is that volunteers are invited to give what time they can, no volunteer is full time, and most average an hour or two a week. We are also streamlining the volunteering process and simplifying the role descriptions we have. A key role is the ability to talk to local people about their experiences of health and social care and to feed this back to us. Now that we have a Partner Programme there will be added opportunities to talk to their service users. Help in this work would be particularly appreciated. Please speak to Karry in the office team if you are interested.
Cruse Bereavement Care (Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Louth Branch) The death of someone very close is likely to bring the most overwhelming distress we ever experience. To offer support at this time of need Cruse Bereavement Care deploys over 5000 volunteers, who operate from Branches across the UK. Last year the Grimsby Branch of Cruse met 133 clients face to face, either individually or in groups and supported more by telephone or by sending literature. But the demand is growing and currently grieving clients may have to wait for up to three months before their support sessions begin. So we urgently need to recruit and train new volunteers. No formal qualifications are required, although they are welcome. Experience of life and personal qualities matter most. We are looking for volunteers who can listen with understanding and be alongside a client in a quietly supportive way, showing their commitment in their manner. For further information please leave your contact details with our helpline, tel: 01472 814455 or email: cruseoffice@yahoo.co.uk. We are also looking for a volunteer treasurer.
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014
Contact The Team
Paul Glazebrook
Karry Stones
Tayo Davenport
Partnership Co-ordinator
Research & Information
Project Support Officer
paul@nbforum.org.uk
karry@nbforum.org.uk
tayo@nbforum.org.uk
Malcolm Morland
Esther Smith
Meet The Board
Kathleen Young Chair
Sam O’Brien
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Jane Mansfield
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire 146 Freeman Street, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, DN32 7AN.