To report any issues with the information below please email executivecycle@westberks.gov.uk.

Agenda item

Healthwatch Report

Purpose: Healthwatch West Berkshire to report on views gathered on healthcare services in the district and to present its annual report.

Minutes:

Andrew Sharp presented the Heathwatch West Berkshire Annual Report 2020/21 (Agenda Item 7).

He began the presentation by providing an overview of the Healthwatch service and explained that Healthwatch came into existence in 2013 under the Health and Social Care Act with a Healthwatch in every local authority area to champion local communities and to take people’s views and experiences back to those who commission and deliver services, with the aim that good practice would be recognised and repeated and to encourage reflection when things didn't go well.

Healthwatch had statutory powers to ‘enter and view’ healthcare facilities. Despite the pandemic, West Berkshire Healthwatch had been able to visit a number of care homes in December 2020 to talk to residents and their families. They also had a statutory power of response. Because it had not been possible to visit establishments during lockdown, they had focused on providing information to residents. They had produced 116 newsletters to disseminate the large amount of information related to the Covid pandemic. A key functions of HWWB was to let the public know what was happening with services and how they were changing, as well as letting the service providers know what the public were experiencing as a result of those changes.

Healthwatch England had shown that only one person in 100 formally complained about health services. As a result, service providers were often unaware when services failed to meet patient’s needs and consequently they were not in a position to put things right. 

A key function of Healthwatch within Health and Wellbeing Boards, Primary Commissioning Boards or Planned Care Boards, was to relay ‘lived experiences’. An example was cited of people who had experienced problems getting emergency blood tests during the pandemic. When patient experiences were communicated, it enabled providers to recognise problems and put in place solutions.

It was acknowledged that statutory bodies wanted to provide the best service they could for local residents, so it was important to get feedback from the public, both good and bad. It was stressed that even minor issues should be captured to avoid major problems from developing.

Another key function of Healthwatch was to capture feedback from West Berkshire's residents and deliver this to service commissioners and providers in a constructive, useful and helpful way.

Healthwatch was one of the few services that covered both Social Care and Health and it went to great lengths to ensure there was a genuine issue before referring up to the statutory bodies. Recent examples had included issues with maternity, dentistry and phlebotomy services.

Where it had not been difficult to engage with the public during the Covid pandemic, Healthwatch had created vehicles in order to make it easier to do so, e.g. the West Berkshire Diversity Forum, the West Berkshire Maternity Forum and the forthcoming CAMHS survey. 

The pandemic had highlighted health inequities, which had been made worse by the pandemic and it was stressed that the health system must be open to learning from the pandemic and other challenges so mistakes were not repeated.

Priorities for the coming year were highlighted as: the recovery of services to pre-Covid levels; working with ethnically diverse communities; maternity services; and children's mental health services.

With regards to digital exclusion, it was recognised by all partners that technology alone was not necessarily the solution. While some people would be able to use it or learn to do so, there were others that would never be able to engage with the technology and measures would be needed to support these individuals.

It was acknowledged that waiting lists must be managed as quickly, effectively and equitably as possible, and that new health inequalities should not be created by neglecting particular groups or conditions. It was noted that media coverage had focused on waiting lists for physical health conditions, but there had been little mention of mental health waiting lists. For example, the dementia diagnosis service ran through the memory clinic, but from March to September this had been closed, thus creating a significant backlog in diagnosis.

The Chairman thanked Andrew Sharp for his presentation and invited questions from Members.

Councillor Tony Linden acknowledged that services were still under pressure and asked what the Committee could do to help. Andrew Sharp hoped that the Committee would help capture learnings from the pandemic to help plan for future, similar challenges. He considered that NHS dentistry services were not fit for purpose. Members of the public did not understand the how to get NHS treatment and as a result 25% of the population did not see a dentist. He noted that NHS dentistry would be brought under Integrated Care System (ICS) management, which was a positive development. Also, NHS South East had met with HWWB and had made an offer to attend the Health Scrutiny Committee. He indicated that maternity was another key area and also stressed the need to consider services used by West Berkshire residents that were in neighbouring areas, such as North Hampshire and Great Western Hospitals.

The Chairman advised that the Overview and Scrutiny Management Commission (OSMC) was producing a piece on COVID learnings and that dentistry was already on the Health Scrutiny Committee’s Work Programme.

Councillor Andy Moore asked Andrew Sharp about GP Receptionists who he perceived to be under pressure and carried out a professional role in terms of triaging patients. Andrew Sharp acknowledged that the workforce was a major issue for all health and care services. He agreed that GP receptionists had a challenging role - they were often given conflicting targets in terms of being told to help patients, but without overloading GPs with appointments. He highlighted an anomaly in that NHS England advice was that anyone could register with a GP practice without ID, but in order to access NHS GP digital services a photo ID was required. This had led to people being refused registration. Andrew Sharp acknowledged the vital role that GP receptionists played and suggested that they needed support and training, and that better integration was needed between GPs and other services, such as the Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB).

Councillor Alan Macro said he had been impressed with the Healthwatch report, in particular the stories about how Healthwatch had helped individuals to access health services. He asked whether enough was being done to promote this aspect of Healthwatch so people knew where to go if they had a problem with accessing services. Andrew Sharp indicated that a limiting factor was that HWWB only had 2.5 FTE staff and a very large portfolio. While Healthwatch, was often able to help due to their knowledge of local health services, he suggested that integration with other services would also help, and that it was important to make it as easy as possible for people to find answers themselves. He suggested that while the system worked for most people, it was important that it catered for everyone, and highlighted the recent success in securing vaccinations for people who were homeless. He stressed the importance of effective communication and the potential for HWWB to use the Council’s communication package to promote their work and raise their profile. As the local authority representative for the CAB, the Chairman suggested that discussions should take place outside of the meeting about how the CAB and HWWB could work more effectively together.

The Chairman thanked Andrew Sharp for the report. She confirmed that Healthwatch reports would be a standing item on the agenda and stressed that the Committee was very keen to work closely with HWWB to ensure the public voice was heard. She invited Andrew Sharp to continue to highlight key issues for the Committee to consider.

Supporting documents: