Year one
Newsletter
HEALTHWATCH NEL—MAY—JUNE NEWSLETTER 2014 May-June Newsletter 2014 Join us and read on to find out what we have in store for May & June 2014.
CONTENT
Page 1
Annual General Meeting
Page 2
Partner Programme
Page 3
Community Fun Day Review of GP waiting times Office Move Public Meetings
Page 4
Investigation into Complaints handling
Page 5
Volunteering HWNEL Subscription
Page 6
Healthwatch England Special Enquiry
Page 7
Contact the team Meet the board
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Year One Newsletter.
Annual General Meeting
Our first Annual General Meeting (AGM) takes place on 18 June 2014 in the Victoria Suite at Tukes, 3-7A Brighowgate, Grimsby, DN32 0QE. At our AGM we will receive our first Annual Report, celebrate some of our achievements and look forward to new ventures in this financial year. The session is from 10.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. and includes the AGM at 11.30 a.m. It is open to everyone and will include a buffet lunch so please come along. It would help enormously with the catering arrangements if you could let us know in advance if you intend to come along and would like to stay to eat by no later than 11 June 2014. We are inviting local health and social care organisations to come along to showcase their work with us, especially organisations that, like ourselves, help to give a voice to local people who otherwise might not be heard, so this is a great opportunity for those who work in health and social care to network and for local people to find out more about the varied work that is carried out locally to make sure that the views of local people can influence what services and support are provided in this area.
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Year One Newsletter.
Partner Programme
At its last meeting on 29 April 2014, our Executive Board approved the introduction of a Partner Programme with local voluntary and community sector organisations (VCS). One of the key ingredients for a successful Healthwatch locally is effective networking and partnership working. The scheme we are introducing is based on a model already successfully introduced by Healthwatch York in that City Council’s area. The key elements of the scheme are about mutual undertakings. What we would like from Healthwatch Partners is:
One of their planned events to be described as a Healthwatch event, with opportunities given to find out more about HWNEL, sign up as subscribers and give feedback about any issues, concerns or good practice we should be aware of A poster, leaflets and other promotional materials for HWNEL to be made available at their premises An article in their newsletter (at least annually) Development of mutually beneficial signposting and referral systems Their assistance in accessing the views of the group(s) they serve and providing feedback when HWNEL is seeking views on specific issues Regular attendance at HWNEL public meetings
What partners can expect from us:
A promise to keep them informed through newsletters and emails about HWNEL’s involvement in health and social care issues Follow-up and feedback on issues that they have raised with us A Healthwatch staff member at their event, to speak about HWNEL A link to their website through our website’s Healthwatch Partners’ Page Regular supplies of leaflets and promotional materials Staff or volunteers to attend further events, manning stalls and explaining what Healthwatch is all about Hearing from key stakeholders in health and social care through our Healthwatch public meetings Features in our newsletter on our Healthwatch Partners Pages
Groups signing up to be Healthwatch Partners will be given an annual contribution of £100. They will also be added to a webpage of Healthwatch Partners. We are particularly interested in partnering with organisations that give a voice to `seldom heard voices’ but this does not exclude others from applying. If you represent a local VCS organisation and would like consider becoming a partner, please contact Paul Glazebrook on 01472 269666 or email him on paul@nbforum.org.uk
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Year One Newsletter.
Community Fun Day As promised, Healthwatch were present at this event at People’s Park on 3 May 2014. Maybe you were there too, but if not, it is worth saying that this was a very well attended event with over 90 other stalls promoting health and social care issues. It meant that lots of people were happy to engage with us on a variety of matters. One outcome is that we secured 16 new subscribers to our information services (newsletters and other email shots). Our thanks go to the Care Plus Group for organising such a worthwhile event.
Review of GP waiting times
on 01472 269666 or email us on: healthwatchnel@nbforum.org.uk Office move People keep asking us `when is the office move?’ We had hoped to have moved by now but there have delays in completing the work at the former Rayners building on Freeman Street, mainly over fitting a central heating system. We will confirm the move as soon as we can including details on our new contact telephone number. Public meetings As you will see from the above article, we will be establishing public meetings during 2014/15. The Board has suggested that plan for two public meeting to which we will invite key theme speakers. This does not exclude the possibility of other meetings being held especially where there are opportunities for public consultation on issues being raised by others such as that proposed over this summer under `Healthy Lives Healthy Futures’. Healthwatch Executive Board meetings are all held in public and include a Question Time when local people can raise concerns about health and social care issues.
The Executive Board agreed that we carry out a review of GP waiting times as its meeting on 29 April 2014. Some readers will be aware that this was the biggest issue that came out of our local survey of people’s experiences of health and social care services. The review will include a questionnaire to local GP practises, guided conversations with some of the practice’s Patient Participation Groups and some further questioning of local patients. We hope that this work will help us better understand the different experiences that patients have in accessing a GP within a reasonable period of time and to identify best practice in tackling what has become an increasing problem. If you did not complete the survey and have current experiences in seeing a GP that you would like to share with us, please contact any of the office team
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Year One Newsletter.
Investigation into Complaints handling
A lot of the experiences that people talk to us involve matters where either a complaint has been made or where one is needed. One of our signposting roles is to advise people where and how to complain and to put them in touch with the Independent Complaints Advocate where they need support with the process. As we hold a monthly stand at Diana Princess of Wales Hospital it is inevitable that a large proportion of such complaints are about treatment at the Northern Lincolnshire & Goole Foundation Trust (NLaG). However, a key element in these stories has been concerns about the subsequent complaints handling process, often associated with apparent delays in responding to the issues raised or not being able to meet face to face with those complained about. On looking at how complaints are reported to the NLaG Board, we also had concerns about the sharing of learning from complaints handling. These points were put to the Trust and as a result of discussions on 11 April 2014, they will now ensure that there is a section on complaints handling in reports to their Quality and Patient Experience Committee. In addition, we have agreed to draw up terms of reference for a piece of work to directly see for ourselves what is going on in this area by talking to the staff directly concerned and by talking to patients/relatives. This work is being led by Paul Glazebrook with assistance from some of the members of the Enter and View Team. If you have any experiences of the complaints handling process at this Trust that you would like to share, please contact Paul on 01472 269666 or paul@nbforum.org.uk
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Year One Newsletter.
Volunteering
We continue to grow our volunteering resources and it was great to see both current volunteers and prospective volunteers at our Volunteering Event at the Grimsby Institute on 24 April 2014. We are shortly to start our Enter and View visits to residential and nursing care homes as part of the local Clinical Commissioning Group’s Dignity Challenge. Authorised Enter and View representatives will offer an independent assessment of aspects of treating residents with dignity and respect to assist homes in maintaining and developing the quality of their care support. Our completed reports will become public documents and will be available on our website and circulatedAA to others including the home concerned, Care Quality Commission, Healthwatch England and local health and social care commissioners.
HWNEL Subscription Healthwatch locally has moved to a subscriber system with those who wish to become more active volunteers becoming Healthwatchers. Wherever possible, we want people to subscribe by email. It costs you nothing and it costs us nothing so we are both winners! We will, of course, maintain a mailshot circulation for newsletters but, to be cost-effective, it may not always be possible to post out all of the other additional items that can be circulated via email. We have recently been reconciling the `mailchimp’ list of email subscribers with some of our paper based records and ended up approaching over 100 people who were not yet on the subscribers list. To be on this list people have to express their willingness for their email details to be put on to mailchimp. After that, only the person themselves can unsubscribe. We hope that these arrangements will produce a more accurate picture of people who are genuinely interested in our current activities. If you are reading this and are not yet subscribing but would wish to do, you can either ring us on 01472 269666, email us your details on: healthwatchnel@nbforum.org.uk or you can submit your details online on our website at www.healthwatchnortheastlincolnshire.co.uk
One of the key factors in the success of Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire is the effectiveness of its volunteers (Healthwatchers) to become the eyes, ears and voices of Healthwatch locally. We are grateful to those who have responded and are now offering this support but much more could be done with more help. Perhaps you could make the difference. If so, please contact Karry Stones on 01472 269666 for an informal chat or ask for further information by emailing her on: Karry@nbforum.org.uk
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Year One Newsletter.
ensure every discharge is handled safely, the special inquiry will focus on what those with Healthwatch England (HWE) has launched a special experience think is needed to get it right for three inquiry to find out why things so often go wrong particularly vulnerable groups: the homeless, those when people are discharged from health and social with mental health conditions and the elderly. This is care institutions. They point out that tens of Healthwatch England's first special inquiry and it will thousands are potentially being sent home without report back on its findings and recommendations in proper support and that mental health patients, the the autumn. homeless and the elderly are most at risk. As a local Healthwatch, we will be contributing to In contrast to standard public inquiries, this this enquiry based on the stories we have already investigation will be led by people with direct heard from the local public and professionals but we experience of unsafe discharge and will reach out to want to build on that evidence by further engagecommunities right across the country through site ment with others who have not spoken to us yet. If visits, focus groups, public hearings, and the you have an experience of unsafe discharge from mobilisation of the 148 local Healthwatch, to hear hospital or care that you are willing to share with us, real life experiences of the discharge process and please ring the office team on 01472 269666 or learn what can be done to improve outcomes. email us on healthwatchnel@nbforum.org.uk Local Healthwatch, like ourselves, all across the country have been hearing distressing stories of poorly planned discharge, from homeless people being put back on the streets after major surgery to elderly people with dementia being sent home with no heating or food in the house. Healthwatch England Special Enquiry
At the moment there is no national level data available to suggest how many incidents of unsafe or poorly planned discharge are occurring. However, over 1 million people were subject to an emergency readmission to hospital last year within 30 days of having been discharged after an operation or treatment. This represents a staggering 27 per cent rise in adult emergency readmissions over the last decade and costs the NHS an estimated ÂŁ2.4 billion. Managing discharge is also a big issue for those with mental health conditions, with a current shortage of beds often resulting in people being discharged too early, and in some cases, the shortage of community care resulting in people being detained for months longer than necessary in mental health facilities. As the consumer champion for health and social care, Healthwatch is convinced that tens of thousands of these incidents could be avoided if more care and attention was paid to preparing the ground for people to return to their home and community from a hospital or social care service. To
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Year One Newsletter.
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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Yvonne Clarke
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Year One Newsletter.
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Foresight, 60 Newmarket Street, Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire, DN32 7SF