News

Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire are running a campaign focused on mental health and physical wellbeing and we would love to hear from you!

We want to know how individuals in Northamptonshire feel about their health and wellbeing and what works best for them.

To find out this information we have created a survey, which should take a maximum of 10 minutes to complete. The questions cover topics like how you feel about your own health and what works best for you in managing your mental wellbeing and physical health. 

Once we have collected all the responses, a report will be created – providing recommendations for local authorities and health services based on the survey feedback from Northamptonshire residents.

We encourage everyone to give their views as feedback is crucial to improving the care you receive.

Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire will be hosting the 2024 Annual Meeting on July 8th from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm at St Crispin Community Centre, Northampton, NN5 4GJ, and we are pleased to open this to the public.

We will also be joined by guest speaker, John Edwards, Deputy Group Director for Transformation of Quality Improvement from NHFT, who will discuss reimagining planned care.

Within our meeting, we will be showcasing the work that we completed during the last financial year, as well as highlighting the projects that we carried out and our goals for the 2024-2025 year.

Have your say on proposed changes to the NHS Constitution.

The NHS Constitution brings together your rights using NHS services as a patient. As well as their values principles and pledges. The constitution empowers patients, staff and the public to know their rights and exercise them in order to progress towards improved healthcare across the NHS. 

The Health Act 2009 requires that every 10 years a review must be carried out and as a result they are seeking feedback from patients, carers, staff and the general public on the proposals set out.

Some of the proposed changes to the NHS Constitution

Responding to deterioration

“The NHS pledges to provide patients (and their families, carers and advocates) who are in acute or specialist provider sites a structured approach to providing information about their or their loved one’s condition at least daily and if they have concerns about physiological deterioration that are not being responded to, access to a rapid review by appropriate clinicians from outside their immediate care team.”

Environmental responsibilities

They are proposing to add a new ‘Environmental responsibilities’ value as a result of being a major contributor to the UK’s carbon footprint.

Patient responsibilities

They propose making the patients responsibility to keep appointments or cancel within a reasonable time clearer, as well as strengthening the responsibility on the NHS to clearly communicate appointment information.

Have your say on the NHS Constitution by filling in the consultaion. It will close at midnight on the 26th of June

We are pleased to share that we have signed the Young Carers Covenant – a UK-wide commitment to young carers and young adult carers.

‘The Young Carers Covenant is a UK-wide commitment to young carers and young adult carers. It sets out ten key outcomes that young carers from across the UK have said are key to improving their lives.’

The key outcomes outlined in the Young Carers Covenant are a future where all young and young adult carers:

• are identified at the earliest opportunity
• can access and succeed in employment/training opportunities
• are safe and secure
• feel they have choices in their lives
• can access and benefit from the rights they have
• are able to thrive in education
• have time for themselves
• can access support for themselves and their family
• have good physical and mental health
• live free from poverty

To find out more about the Young Carers Covenant and get involved:

West Northamptonshire Council are running a consultation seeking the public’s views of Healthwatch services in West Northamptonshire. Get involved via the button below.

In April 2024 we had the opportunity to deliver a presentation to the Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland (LLR) Women’s Institute (WI) on the theme of dentistry. Each year the National Federation of WIs chooses a resolution to call for change on a current issue in society. This year’s resolution is based around dentistry.

‘There is a chronic shortage of NHS dentists and people are suffering health issues as a result. The NFWI calls upon the Government to increase investment in the training and retention of dentists and to review the current inadequate NHS contracts in order to ensure everyone can gain access to an NHS dentist wherever they live.’

Sue Mottram, Resolution Advisor for Leicestershire and Rutland Federation of WIs.

Healthwatch Rutland partnered with Healthwatch Leicester and Leicestershire to present information on the patient’s perspective of NHS dentistry services within our local areas. We highlighted patient feedback from our recent dental poll and introduced a briefing paper which Healthwatch Rutland published this month. Sarah May, a retired general dental practitioner and member of the Leicestershire and Rutland Local Dental Committee also gave a history of dentistry and how NHS dentistry has evolved into the services we experience today locally. The audience were delegates from WIs across the 2 counties who would then cascade information to their fellow members of their individual WI groups.

We delivered information around the National Dental Recovery Plan and the potential impact on Rutland residents. The audience commented about confusion on certain points within the plan. They highlighted the importance of understanding what the points mean to be able to understand the potential impacts. 

During our presentations some of the incentives contained in the NHS Dental Recovery Plan were discussed in more detail:

£15-£50 Bonus

This is a new patient bonus given to dentists for treating people who have not seen a dentist for 2 years or more. 

Minimum ‘UDA’ uplift

Units of Dental Activity (UDA) are the way in which clinical activity is measured within NHS dentistry. The number of UDAs awarded to a dental practice for a treatment depends on the complexity of treatment. The Recovery Plan increases the value of UDAs to ensure that NHS dentists are better recompensed for the work they do.

‘Golden Hello’

This is a financial incentive of £20,000 phased over 3 years given to NHS dentists to work in areas which are currently underserved. It is not yet known which areas of Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland will benefit from this. 

The next steps for the delegates of the LLR WI are to attend the National Federation of Women’s Institute Annual Meeting in June at the Royal Albert Hall. As well as listening to a variety of other speakers, this is where they will vote on the resolution on behalf of their own WI. 

“Healthwatch provided a super presentation in support of our resolution “Dental Matters”. Hollie and Gemma were so helpful, liaising with our other speaker to ensure a balanced programme. Our members went away with a wealth of useful information to cascade to their groups.”

Sue Mottram, member of the Stoke Golding WI and Resolution Advisor for the Leicestershire and Rutland Federation of WI’s

Healthwatch Rutland will continue to represent the patients’ voice and highlight difficulties which Rutland residents are facing when trying to access NHS dentistry.