Who's watching our Health?- Report from Healthwatch Staffordshire

It can be difficult and even dangerous when we don't get the healthcare we need. Often the last thing we feel like doing in the midst of health difficulties is complaining or campaigning for change. Healthwatch organisations across the UK are an independently watching out for us all, but what do they do locally? We caught up with Emma Ford from Staffordshire Healthwatch, who shares below details about their important work.

Healthwatch was established as an independent watchdog following the Francis Enquiry which took place following the failings in Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.    As well as Healthwatch England, there are 152 local Healthwatch in England, of which Healthwatch Staffordshire is one (Stoke-on-Trent have their own Healthwatch).

The aim of Healthwatch is to make local health and social care services better for people by ensuring that your views and experiences are taken into account by those entrusted to design and run services.  The services Healthwatch wants to hear about are GPs, Hospitals, Dentists, Opticians, Care Homes, and Care in a person’s own home – any health or social care service that is paid for ‘from the public purse’, not if you pay for home care yourself.

Like all local Healthwatch bodies, Healthwatch Staffordshire has a statutory seat on the local Health and Wellbeing Board – the body that oversees health and social care in the County. Additionally, we have the statutory power to ‘Enter and View’ health and social care services using our trained volunteers. 

We also have a statutory duty to report annually to both Healthwatch England, and the public, on our activities, to show how we have represented patients and social care users and the impact we have had.

One example of Healthwatch’s work concerns the current lack of NHS dentists.  At Healthwatch Staffordshire we have had many people contact us saying they are unable to find an NHS dentist that will see them.  Healthwatch England asked local Healthwatch’s for their feedback on this issue, and we wrote a report detailing the experiences of Staffordshire residents.  In April 2023 Healthwatch England used the evidence of local Healthwatch’s, and gave evidence at the Parliamentary Health & Social Care Committee.

Locally, last year we completed three reports.  One on Access to Primary Care, one on the Root Causes of Good and Poor Mental Wellbeing When You have Been in Care as a Child, and another on people who are Seldom Heard.  To find out more about these reports  https://healthwatchstaffordshire.co.uk/our-research-reports/

We have recently carried out a survey into the experiences of people who call an ambulance.  This report should be published later this year.

How to Contact Healthwatch Staffordshire

Healthwatch Staffordshire about your experience of health & social care services call 0800 051 8371, email enquiries@healthwatchstaffordshire.co.uk, or go to www.healthwatchstaffordshire.co.uk

We would also ask you to complete out survey asking for general feedback about health and social care services.

https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/G84ZDT/