Introduction by the Co-chairs of RedbridgeLINk This year saw RedbridgeLINk gain Healthwatch Pathfinder status. This meant that we have spent a large part of the year getting ready for the transition to Healthwatch Redbridge next year. Many Redbridge residents took part in a series of focus groups to tell us what they would expect a local Healthwatch to provide. In March, the London Borough of Redbridge (LBR) facilitated a public event resulting in a report ‘A Vision for Local Healthwatch in the London Borough of Redbridge’. Going forward, we will be working with LBR to support a managed transition from LINk to Local Healthwatch. To support the transition arrangements, we restructured our management team and created a Management Board to make us ready for Heathwatch. We will continue to strengthen our Board, ensuring members are appropriately equipped to meet the challenges ahead. We have been working in partnership with local statutory and voluntary organisations on the Ageing Well Project. This has seen RedbridgeLINk lead on developing links with sheltered housing schemes, culminating in a report presented to a national conference. The project was so successful that we are now in the process of developing a sustainable scheme (see page 14). A tremendous challenge for local residents has been the failures in service provision relating to our local health provider Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals Trust (BHRUT). RedbridgeLINk has been working hard to ensure that residents’ voices are heard and that improvements continue to be made to Accident Co-chair Vanda Thomas speaking at our Maternity Meeting, with & Emergency (A&E), inrepresentatives from the CQC and Queen’s Hospital at the Ripple Centre, Barking patient and maternity services. Best wishes,
Glynis Donovan 4
Vanda Thomas