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September—October 2015 Newsletter
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Contents Page 4 Local CQC Inspections East Midlands Ambulance Service Reputation Audit Page 5 Healthwatch’s Hospital Visits Enter and View Updates Partner News Page 6 Self-Care Week Cloverleaf Advocacy Older People’s Advice Day Page 7 The DOCKS Collaborative Page 8 Board Updates Page 9 Meet Healthwatch NEL
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Local CQC Inspections Throughout October, November, and December of this year, the Care Quality Commission is going to be inspecting a variety of services to ensure they are safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led. Locally, this inspection will include Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust and East Midlands Ambulance Service. We want to hear your experiences with these services so that we can work with the CQC to make sure they have all the information they need for their visit to be effective and comprehensive.
patients and visitors there what they thought about the service. While most people we spoke to were positive about their experiences with the hospital, we need as much information as possible to build as clear and accurate a picture as possible. To share your experience with us, call 01472 361459 or email healthwatchnel@nbforum.org.uk. You can also share your experience on our website at healthwatchnortheastlincolnshire.co.uk
Earlier this month we visited Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby and asked
East Midlands Ambulance Service Reputation Audit East Midland Ambulance Service are asking for the public’s opinion on the service as part of their Reputation Audit.
public, members of staff, and stakeholders. The results will help EMAS make improvements to their service.
While they regularly gather the feedback of patients, this reputation audit hopes to take into consideration the opinion of the wider
To complete the survey, please visit www.surveymonkey.com/r/TellEMAS15
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Healthwatch’s Hospital Visits Since early June, Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire has been carrying out Enter and View visits to Diana Princess of Wales Hospital in Grimsby. This programme is similar to our programme for visiting care homes in North East Lincolnshire in that it is performed by a group of trained volunteers, but these visits
also include a structured questionnaire to ask patients. So far our team has completed two separate visits, viewing a variety of wards and departments including maternity and outpatients. To read the reports from these visits, visit the Enter and View page of our website at healthwatchnortheastlincolnshire.co.uk.
Enter and View Updates As well as our hospital visits, our programme for visiting care homes within North East Lincolnshire continues successfully. As always, we are looking for enthusiastic volunteers to join our Enter and View team as well as our community engagement team! Volunteering with Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire happens on your own time; there are no obligations for how often or how long you have to volunteer with us.
We currently perform two Enter and View visits a month, so you will have plenty of opportunity to help the team and contribute to this successful programme. If you are interested in joining our Enter and View team, please contact out office at 01472 361459 or email healthwatchnel@nbforum.org.uk
Partner News Alzheimers Society are holding a taster art session at Strand Court in Albion Street, Grimsby, DN32 7DL. The session will focus on painting pebbles to be placed in the garden. The event will take place on Tuesday, 29 September 2015 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM.
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire is always looking for new ways to engage with our partners and the wider community. If your organisation would like to invite us to an event or meeting to speak to people about what we do, give us a call at the office at 01472 361 459.
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Self-Care Week Did you know that from 16-22 November of this year is Self-Care Week? The goal of Self-Care Week is to teach people how they can treat minor ailments or learn to live with long-term conditions as well as living healthier lifestyles so that health issues are less likely. For more information on self-care, visit www.nhs.uk/selfcare
Cloverleaf Advocacy Cloverleaf Advocacy will be fully active in delivering a broader local advocacy service under the Care Act 2012 in North East Lincolnshire as of 1 October, 2015. The new advocacy duty will apply from the point of first contact with the local authority for people who have substantial difficulty and needing care support – including a carer - and at any subsequent stage of the assessment, planning, care review, safeguarding enquiry or safeguarding adult review.
These types of advocates are often provided when someone is deemed to lack capacity to make their own decision about an issue if there is no family member or friend who can consult with the individual, as well as in many other circumstances. For more information, call Cloverleaf at 01724 854952 or visit their website at cloverleaf-advocacy.co.uk
Older People’s Advice Day Older People’s Advice Day will be taking place again this year after a successful event last year.
You can find out more about the event on Facebook by searching for “Older People’s Advice Day”.
The event will include multiple organisations offering advice and information about topics including benefits, medication, health care, social alarms, pensions, care at home, and mobility as well as much more.
The day will be held at Memorial Hall, Cleethorpes on 7 October, 2015 from 10:00am—3:00pm.
Admission is free and there will also be free electric blanket checks.
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The DOCKS Collaborative Readers will recall the articles about our review on Access to GP Services in our March/April and May/June newsletters. A further report looking at an action plan to monitor the review’s recommendations goes before our Board on 21 September 2015. The aspirations within our review to improve access for those that need it are recognised by our local Clinical Commissioning Group and are being tackled through two initiatives, the DOCKS Collaborative and the LINKS Collaborative. We thought it would be useful at this stage to share a little about the DOCKS initiative which is already up and running. Aware of the increasing pressures on general practice and the difficulties that some patient have in accessing same day advice or appointments, a group of 10 practices and Core Care Links who provide the current out of hours service, collectively known as DOCKS developed an initiative to try and tackle this. By working together, the project will provide access to telephone triage for urgent appointment requests Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9am
to 12 noon. This means that all urgent GP appointment requests will be firstly assessed and it might be that you are dealt without a face to face GP appointment. This may also mean that it might be a different GP that will call and assess you than your registered GP. The practices involved are Beacon Medical, Clee Medical, Dr R Kumar, Dr S Kumar, Dr Mathews, Dr Sinha, Healing, Raj Medical, Scartho Medical and Roxton. If you require an urgent appointment you can ring your normal surgery phone number which will redirect (if needed) to the surgery where the collaborative arrangement is being held. You can also contact online using Patient Partner provided you have acquired a 6 digit security PIN or by using `systmonline’ (your GP reception can provide details – this may not be in place at all these surgeries yet) for booking, reviewing or cancelling appointments. If your call/contact is urgent, a GP will get back to you normally within 2 hours and agree whether you need to be seen that day or not. It is hoped that this medical triage will improve decision making and ensure that you get the appropriate help for your condition.
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Board Updates Esther Smith
September Board Meeting
We regret to write that Esther Smith has now left the Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire board after nearly two years of working on behalf of the community to improve health and social care.
The next Board meeting on 21 September 2015 includes papers on:
Establishing a register of interests for the Board
While we are sad to see her leave, we wish her the best with all her future endeavours.
Agreeing Board lead role in delivering our Year 3 programme of work
Board Meeting Dates
Our plans and process to carry out a stakeholder survey
Responses to the recommendations in our review on Access to GP Services.
Updates on our volunteering including Enter and View activity.
Please note that the previous newsletter listed the September board meeting as being schedules for 24 September. It has since been rescheduled to 21 September, though the time and venue remain the same.
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Meet Healthwatch NEL Our Team
Paul Glazebrook
Tayo Davenport
Bayard Tarpley
Partnership Coordinator
Communications & Engagement Worker
Project Support Officer
Our Board
Michael Bateson
Sam O’Brien
Jane Mansfield
Malcolm Morland
Sean Snelson (Co-optee)
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Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Office G5, Enterprise Village Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire DN31 3AT