Alex Stewart, Chief Executive of Healthwatch Norfolk, spoke at the University of East Anglia visiting scholar programme. Alex's presentation focuses on the role of Healthwatch in the newly configured health and social care system. Wednesday 22 May 2013.
5. So What is Healthwatch and How does it
fit in?
Healthwatch is the new independent consumer champion created to
gather and represent the views of the public. Healthwatch will play a
role at both national and local level and will make sure that the views of
the public and people who use services are taken into account.
Healthwatch will give people a powerful voice in Norfolk and nationally.
Healthwatch Norfolk will work to help local people get the best out of
their local health and social care services. Whether it's improving them
today or helping to shape them for tomorrow. Local Healthwatch is all
about local voices being able to influence the delivery and design of
local services. Not just people who use them, but anyone who might
need to in future
7. Norfolk residents
Healthwatch Norfolk Norfolk Health and
Wellbeing Board
Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Groups
Social Care
Commissioners
Public Health
commissioners
NCC
Complaints to
NHS/County council
The Opportunities
8. To Conclude…………..
By :-
- having a collective voice and
- being able to build on a strong and connected Norfolk voluntary sector
It will: -
- provide us with a methodology to counter too-ready NHS and other
provider claims that things are going well if they aren’t and hold them
more accountable
So How Can You Help?
- Through community-academic research collaborations, we will be able to
provide evidence and evaluations to review and challenge claims
A whistle stop tour. The NHS was born in 48. The 50s’ saw radical breakthroughs:-Crick and Watson - DNA breakthroughPolio and Diptheria Vaccinations introducedThe 60’s started to look at what had been unleased resulting in Enoch Powelll’s Hospital Plan, the Salmon Report & the Cogwheel ReportThe 70’s & 80’s saw more major clinical breakthroughs – CT scanning, test tube babies, 1st heart, lung and liver transplant, is t national campaign centred on AIDS,endorphin discovery, and the introduction of the word wellbeing into the vernacular The 90’s - NHS and Community Care Act – Launch of NHS DirectThe Naughties bore witness to the advent of Walk in Centres, PCG to PCTs, the 1st Foundation Trusts were created, introduction of the NHS Constitution and finally…in 2012 – Health and Social Care Act received Royal Assent
And the funding arrangements become even more complexIn an article in the BMJ on the 21st January 2011, Sir David Nicholson, the NHS chief executive, described the reorganisation as the biggest change management programme in the world—the only one so large “that you can actually see it from space.”Of the annual 4% efficiency savings expected of the NHS over the next four years, the Commons health select committee said, “The scale of this is without precedent in NHS history; and there is no known example of such a feat being achieved by any other healthcare system in the world.
The underlying concept behind Healthwatch is to: -Help the public to shape and improve the services you use.Engage with people in the communityBe an an open organisation thereby making it easy for people to talk to usBe inclusive - we want people from every part of your community to join usEncourage people to ask us what we're doing & let them know what we’re up toBe held to account and let people know what differences we have madeBe the voice of ensuring that services improve.Notice the bad and the goodAll of work will be underpinned with a sound evidence base - We will be using your evidence to build a true picture of your local services
In essence, the challenge is to help service users navigate through the confusion. Whilst I fully recognise that I have concentrated on the new Health structures, Social Care is no different and is equally bureaucratic, in fact for the uninitiated, almost impossible. Those who need to access services often feel isolated. Despite the fact that there is always talk about user involvement in design and commissioning, it is frequently rhetoric and tokenistic. For those who are marginalised, e.g., homeless, people with severe disabilities, people with aphasia, BME communities who don’t have English as a primary language, they feel as if they are being left out in the wilderness We need to open the closed culture of health and social care services in order to make the most effective use of the resources that we have. We need to recognise the diversity of service users differing experiences and not be afraid to have the awkward conversations. Above all, we need to ensure that any evidence we produce is credible, reliable and accurate in order to validate and give weight to any recommendations we may make.
By adopting a collaborative approach between the statutory and non-statutory sectors, recognising our individual strengths and weaknesses, we can work our way through the mire.Local Healthwatch organisations are close to communities, especially those considered hard to reach, we have skills and experience of working with disadvantaged and disenfranchised groups and individuals the community .We are an independent voice, acting as a check or balance to the mainstream We can be flexible and responsive to changing needs We are a means of harnessing community energy and ideas to develop solutions, thereby making a difference In addition, the benefits can be broader than those initially conceived as outcomes and the concept of ‘social accounting’ can and should be used to demonstrate added value. The opportunities are endless, working together, we can deliver high quality, focused and innovative interventions based on a detailed understanding of local and individual needs and can be successful where other interventions may have failed
We need to both balance and challenge the opportunities, this can be achieved………….
