To review the Healthwatch Herefordshire annual report for 2017/18 and to consider areas that Healthwatch has raised for inclusion in the committee’s work programme for further scrutiny.

The Chair of Healthwatch Herefordshire presented the annual report for 2017-18.  In his opening remarks he thanked those members who attended the Healthwatch annual showcase event held that morning. It had been a big year for Healthwatch Herefordshire as a standalone company. This was a big achievement, where a lot had been learned from the relationship with Healthwatch Worcestershire, which continues with collaborative work.  The day to day operation of the organisation continued thanks to the appointment of the chief officer, and it was a vote of confidence to have the contract to provide the Healthwatch service extended to 2020.

In summarising the annual report and the work of Healthwatch during 2017-18, he described work undertaken on major projects to properly influence change within the county, which included:

·         GP access – 313 people spoken to about access to GP services. Two thirds were happy with their services, and the findings were being used to make improvements, such as increasing understanding of what different GPs offer and managing reasonable adjustments. A number of recommendations were made and used for a number of projects to realign primary care services around the market towns.  The work also informed a quality review of end of life by the Clinical Commissioning Group. 

·         Public health and children’s mental health – there are plans to work with the new director of public health on further work.

·         Children’s dental health – there was in-depth work on this, involving 537 people, with lots of information gathered, concluding that people needed to know more about what is on offer for dental health.

·         Walk-in centre – work would continue to monitor the impact of the closure of the walk-in centre to see what alternative provision people presented at instead.

·         Hillside - there had been useful meetings with WVT and adult social care around the development of community health and social services.  There were improvements but more needed to be done. The key was how the different parts were co-ordinated and moving people away from having too many carers.

·         Complex and multiple conditions – work was nearing completion around the co-ordination of all the components of care where people have dual diagnoses.  Healthwatch was engaging with special interest groups to find out more about the issues faced. 

·         There had been a lot of contact with people to give information and advice and Healthwatch had moved to visiting existing groups rather than holding general events. Healthwatch had visited 101 groups which had increased engagement and allowed for richer information to be gathered.

·         There was contact with patient participation groups where Healthwatch involvement had positive impact. A good example of engagement with Ledbury health interest group over concerns about the impact of significant housing development led to the issue being raised with the Clinical Commissioning Group.  There was also engagement in Kington and Leominster looking at providing more comprehensive services, and there would be an open public meeting to look at proposals for Leominster.

·         The mental health working group was reinstated, with regular meetings with users, inviting speakers and influencing how services would be delivered.

Work planned for the coming year included care in community, dementia care and children and young people’s mental health.

Healthwatch had also recently launched an online feedback centre where people could submit reviews of services which, subject to moderation, would be displayed and would be fed back to the provider. 

The chair commented that the public would have to accept that services needed to change, given changes in the available workforce and recruitment issues, which would affect how they accessed a GP. The Healthwatch chair responded that there were workforce shortages in the county but Herefordshire was doing comparatively well. Practices needed to rethink how they delivered services and accept that someone with a long term condition should be seen by the same GP.

Members thanked Healthwatch for its accomplishments, noting that the organisation seemed more dynamic and that the policy of going out to people was an improvement.

The Interim director for adults and wellbeing added that the new arrangement was welcomed and that Healthwatch maintained a healthy professional relationship whilst holding the council to account, and this would be supported.

In response to a question from a member, the Healthwatch chair confirmed that the council was listening to Healthwatch feedback on service delivery.

A member added thanks for the report and commented on the extent to which a GP could save time overall by taking a bit more time with patients in consultations to provide reassurance, but some needed to be convinced of this.  The Healthwatch chair replied that GPs were under pressure but some were willing to take on ideas, although when under pressure, rather than look to the service user for ideas, they looked for their own solutions such as restricted opening times.

RESOLVED

That Healthwatch Herefordshire performance for 2017-18 be noted.