In December Kelvin Dixon joined Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire as our new Project Support Officer. Kelvin takes over the position from Bayard Tarpley who left the organisation last year.
“I can’t wait use my expertise to reach out to as many members of the public as possible. “
“It’s really an exciting time for Healthwatch” Kelvin said, “more and more people are contacting us to make their voices heard.
We would like you all to join us in welcoming Kelvin. We look forward to working with him in the future.
Last week we asked people to tell us about their experiences with NAViGO mental health services.
Quality Commission (CQC) before their inspection later this month.
Since then we’ve had dozens of people come forward to share their stories. Patients contacted us by phone, email, post, in person and on Twitter to tell us all about the care they’ve received. We’ve taken these insights to the Care
Your stories will go on to inform the CQC’s work and ultimately help NAViGO to continuously improve and offer the best possible support for people living with mental health issues. Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire would like to thank everyone who made an effort to contact us and shared their experience. Do you have a story to tell? Call us today: 01472 361459
Macmillan Cancer Support – in partnership with the Care Plus Group – are looking for volunteers to share information and talk about the importance of detecting cancer early.
In their final publication of 2015, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), reported on three local providers. College View Residential Home and Housing & Support Solutions DCA were both found to “Require Improvement”. Grimsby Grange and Manor Care Home received an overall CQC rating of “Good” in all five of the inspection criteria. Healthwatch often helps the CQC by collecting and analysing the experiences of local people. When you share your stories you help us to improve health and social care
Many cancers respond well to treatment if they are diagnosed in their initial stages. By becoming a ‘Cancer Champion’, volunteers will receive free training, a certificate and will be able to make a positive impact on cancer treatment in the local area. If you would like to learn more about the different forms of cancer and would like to help, contact: 01472 232265
services in our area. One of the ways your experiences can help is by informing CQC inspections. There are currently no announced local inspections planned by the CQC. However Healthwatch are always looking at local care providers and your stories are important in helping us to do that. Keep an eye on our Twitter feed and website for more information about future studies.
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire are looking for health and social care organisations to come forward and be a part of celebrating local care. Preparations have begun for 2016’s Health Action Week (June 13-17) - five days of events dedicated to encouraging public discussion of health and social care, while celebrating the good work that can be seen throughout our area.
GHoPA are hosting weekly archery sessions. These run every Sunday from 10am—12 noon at the YMCA sports hall. Sessions are £5 per person. Call: 01472 359471 for more information. Harbour Place is a day centre for the homeless and other socially excluded groups. They are running a ‘Severe Weather Protocol’ to tackle the quickly dropping temperatures. The centre will be open in the evenings until March.
We are asking if health and care groups are interested in organising events during this week of activity. Taster sessions, drop-ins, community days, award ceremonies, sports events - there are plenty of ways to promote good practice in local healthcare. Contact us now on 01472 361459 or healthwatchnel@nbforum.org.uk and be part of Health Action Week 2016!
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire is always looking for new ways to engage with our partners and the wider community. If your organisation would like to invite us to an event or meeting to speak to people about what we do, give us a call at the office at 01472 361 459.
With the New Year upon us, it’s worth looking back at some of the things your local Healthwatch accomplished in 2015.
In 2015 we visited 12 care homes and made 5 local hospital visits. You can view all of these reports on our website.
In North East Lincolnshire we had contact with hundreds of residents. We also listened to your stories and heard about your experiences of local health and social care. This helped us to learn about the issues that are most important to you.
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire also has an Independent Complaints Advocate (ICA). The ICA is here to support people who want to make formal complaints about an NHS or social care service.
We used this information to produce indepth studies, such as our GP Access Review and our Dental Clinic Mystery Shopper.
Sometimes an official complaints process can be daunting or confusing. Our ICA is completely independent. When you contact them they can listen to your story and provide guidance through the complaints process.
We used our findings to share best practice with local care providers. Where appropriate we challenged and encouraged care services to improve, offering the best possible support for their patients. Alongside these studies, we continued our Enter and View inspections. These visits are a chance for Healthwatch to directly observe care services.
In a recent report residents who used our ICA told us that they felt “informed and supported”. The New Year looks to be an exciting one for Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire. If you have an story about local care that you’d like to share then - good or bad – we’re interesting in hearing it!
events, becoming an Enter and View representative, or just helping us get the word out about the work we are doing. There is no time commitment when becoming a volunteer. We appreciate every bit of help and volunteer offers and will work around you. We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help improve local health and social care services. As a part of our team you can make a big difference - whether it's at live
“Your Voice Counts” – Healthwatch’s most important role is to make sure the public’s voice is listened to and heard. There are lots of ways we do this but we believe the most effective is face to face. We attend events throughout North East Lincolnshire and we have a regular stand at Grimsby Hospital on the second Tuesday of every month. People are welcome to drop in and
If you would like more information on Volunteering then please get in touch with Tayo Davenport at tayo@nbforum.org.uk or call 01472 361459 for further information.
have a chat with us or find out more about local health and social care. We would like to be in the community more and are looking for places where people would like to see Healthwatch so they can share their experiences. If there are any local services that would like us to attend one of their regular coffee mornings, meetings or similar events where we can engage with members of the public then please contact: tayo@nbforum.org.uk or call on us: 01472 361 459.
Members of the public are invited to join Health Watch North East Lincolnshire at our bi-monthly Board meeting. The meeting is taking place from 5.30 to 8pm on January 20, 2016 at Freeman Street Resource Centre in Grimsby. The Agenda and its associated reports
can be found on our website. We will be discussing several topics including: volunteers, Enter & View inspections and Health Action Week 2016. There will be a section at the start of the meeting where members of the public can bring issues to us or ask questions.
Paul Glazebrook
Tayo Davenport
Kelvin Dixon
Partnership Coordinator
Communications & Engagement Worker
Project Support Officer
Michael Bateson
Sam O’Brien
Emily Reseigh
Jane Mansfield
Sean Snelson (Co-optee)