To receive a presentation from Healthwatch Gloucestershire. 

36.1           The Chair welcomed the Chief Executive of Healthwatch Gloucestershire, Barbara Piranty, to the meeting and indicated that she would be providing Members with further information on the work of Healthwatch Gloucestershire at the request of the Committee. 

36.2           Copies of Healthwatch Gloucestershire’s annual report were circulated around the table for information.  The Chief Executive of Healthwatch Gloucestershire explained that there were 148 local Healthwatch groups in England, although it was anticipated that this would be reduced from 2017 due to local authority budget cuts which were likely to result in the amalgamation of the smaller organisations.  Healthwatch Gloucestershire was quite unique as there was only one Clinical Commissioning Group for the County.  The following key points were made during the presentation:

·      Statutory functions – Information and signposting – it was important for self-care and prevention to know the right place to go at the right time and there was a team who disseminated information from the office to members of the public and professionals; influencing – by gathering patients’ experiences and passing on comments to the commissioners and providers; advocacy – for areas which were not covered, there was a very strong advocacy network and Healthwatch worked closely with SEAP (Support, Empower, Advocate, Promote) which provided independent advocacy services to help make a complaint about any aspect of NHS care or treatment.

·      Healthwatch in numbers – 1,050 Healthwatch members as at the end of March 2016; 140,254 website visitors; 45 health and social care working groups; 197 events which Healthwatch had been involved in; 17 ‘enter and view’ inspections undertaken; 50 referrals to advocacy; 85% of calls dealt with in-house; 1,296 comments made; 27 sites visited; in contact with 60 patient participant groups.

·      What you told us – Most talked about: acute and GP; areas of increased feedback: social care, domiciliary care, transport and pharmacy; high levels of satisfaction: GPs (39% positive), acute (37% positive) and integrated community teams.

·      Health and Social Care Issues –

-               acute - hospital discharge;

-               GP services - long waits for appointments;

-               pharmacy - long waits for prescriptions;

-               community services - concerns about the number of district nurses;

-               mental health services – delayed access to the crisis team;

-               emergency care – responsiveness to care e.g. ambulance response;

-               domiciliary care – consistency of care;

-               transport – long waits for non-emergency patient transport and delays                    getting to hospital.

·      How are we making a difference? – Task group reports and recommendations; working with others; reviews/influencing; patient stories; membership; specialist website pages; readers’ panels; learning disability project; ‘enter and view’.

·      Our priorities in 2016/17 – Hospital discharge/hospital aftercare; access to early intervention mental health services for young people; dementia care; pharmacy services; access to GP services; ‘enter and view’.

·      What we did in 2015/16 – Attended 197 events throughout Gloucestershire; gathered nearly 2,500 comments and experiences; community engagement team: staff and volunteers.

·      How did we do it?

-               2013/14 - 8% talk; 13% information stand; 50% retail outlet; 7%                               enquiry hub; 22% ‘other’.

-               2014/15 - 32% talk; 28% information stand; 18% retail outlet; 5%                             enquiry hub; 17% ‘other’.

-               2015/16 - 34% talk; 24% information stand; 16% retail outlet; 10%                           enquiry hub; 16% ‘other’.

36.3           A Member questioned how much influence Healthwatch Gloucestershire actually had given funding constraints and the Chief Executive of Healthwatch Gloucestershire indicated that she liked to think that it was able to incite change;  Healthwatch Gloucestershire was well-established and there had been good links within the county for some time.  Account was taken of financial constraints when reports were written and they did not propose whole system changes; often it was tiny tweaks which made a huge difference.  The patient experience could be lost in the planning of services so the main aim was to keep them at the centre e.g. with regard to stroke rehabilitation, it had been found that drug rounds were being interrupted at meal times and this had been easily addressed by introducing red tabards so people were aware that drug rounds were in progress and should not be disturbed.

36.4           A Member queried whether satisfaction data was broken down to a local, single surgery, level and was informed that Healthwatch Gloucestershire had produced two versions of the report on patient experience of GP surgeries.  There had generally been quite a high satisfaction rate, however, there were some poorly performing practices and this had been fed back to the Care Quality Commission separately in the second version of the report.  The Member went on to question whether areas which were about to go through significant change were specifically targeted in order to provide feedback and he was advised that this was the case, for example, Healthwatch Gloucestershire was currently working with Gloucestershire Care Service on what they felt was appropriate in view of changing the hours on the Minor Injuries Unit.

36.5           In response to a Member query as to whether Healthwatch Gloucestershire worked with the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), confirmation was provided that any current complaints or concerns were referred on.  A Member questioned how people got involved with Healthwatch Gloucestershire and was advised that people who rang the office were often encouraged to get involved if they expressed an interest in community engagement work and wanted to exert an influence in terms of health.

36.6           A Member indicated that he was particularly concerned about delays with hospital discharges and admissions and the Chief Executive of Healthwatch Gloucestershire explained that this was a knock on effect of various issues throughout the system.  For example, if there were lots of people going into accident and emergency for treatment, less patients could be admitted for scheduled procedures; patients could not be discharged without the correct continuing care in place.  Healthwatch Gloucestershire was providing separate insight to develop ideas and an ‘enter and view’ of accident and emergency was being undertaken to ensure that people knew about the alternatives.

36.7           The Lead Member for Health and Wellbeing expressed his support for the Healthwatch service and the Chair thanked the Chief Executive of Healthwatch Gloucestershire for her informative presentation.  It was subsequently

RESOLVED          That the Healthwatch Gloucestershire presentation be NOTED.