News

Public Health teams across the region recently attended the annual East Midlands Public Health Conference. They were invited to take part in a poster competition where colleagues could present a poster to showcase work that they have been involved in. See below how we contributed to West Northamptonshire Council’s winning poster.

Earlier this year Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire published their report on Respiratory Conditions within the N4 LAP, which explored the experience of individuals living with a breathing condition or respiratory disease, like COPD. We discussed with people locally about what works well to manage their condition and what support works well for them, as well as what some of the challenges and barriers can be when living with a breathing condition. This included discussing effective supports and any services individuals wished were in place.

Our research was fed back to West Northamptonshire Council, who commissioned the work, in order for them to review the findings and work to better services for people locally, as a part of their Breathlessness Pathway Programme.

They recently presented this work at the annual East Midlands Public Health Conference, where the poster(see above) for the Breathlessness Pathway Programme was presented and was selected as one of the winners! This is an exciting award, that we are proud to have contributed to the work on and are happy to share our certificate of recognition below.

Connected Together CIC is the contract holder of Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire and Healthwatch Rutland.

Healthwatch exists on a national and local level, working towards the same goal of enabling people to have a voice about their health and social care services.

They take the experiences and views of the people of Northamptonshire and Rutland respectively and provide recommendations back to the service providers and commissioners with the power to make change happen. 

Each has produced a clear outline of who they are, how they work and how they can help you.

The NHS report recently published, came after a nine-week review by independent peer and surgeon Lord Darzi, who was asked to identify the current failings in the health service.

The report highlights some of the following key findings:

• Long waits in A&E likely to be causing an additional 14,000 more deaths a year
• The state of the NHS is not entirely due to what has happened within the health service, but also because the health of the nation has deteriorated 
• Rising levels of illness risk economic prosperity, with 2.8 million people unable to work because of poor health
• Higher cancer mortality rates than other countries
• Although hospital staff numbers have increased since the pandemic, the number of appointments and procedures hasn’t
• The NHS has been starved of capital investment

If you have accessed the department with a poorly child in the last 2 years, we would like to hear from you.

The Leicester Children’s Emergency Department is a 24 hour facility located on the Leicester Royal Infirmary site. Patients can walk-in for treatment, be referred there by contacting NHS 111, or be taken by ambulance.

We are running a short survey alongside colleagues at Healthwatch Leicester and Healthwatch Leicestershire to understand families’ experiences of using the service. The survey takes around 5 minutes to complete, or we can send you a hardcopy. 

Your feedback is anonymous and will be used with that from other people, to write a report on people’s experiences of accessing childrens’ emergency care

Please share your experience and make a difference!

To order a hardcopy call 01572 720381 or email info@healthwatchrutland.co.uk 

Our project to understand people’s experiences of the communications they receive when moving between NHS services is continuing through August.

We’d like to hear how you have found the process of referrals from the GP practice to hospital care, diagnostic tests (and getting back the results), discharge from hospital care to GP & any medications involved etc. 

This could include communications by letter, text messages, phone calls or use of apps for organising appointments or patient transport or medications.

Hollie was interviewed by Rob Persani for Rutland and Stamford Sound recently. You can hear what she said about the project in this short clip from the interview:

Our online survey takes about 5 minutes to complete, or we can send you a hardcopy or easy read version if preferred. We are also offering an in-person chat or half hour telephone call if anyone would prefer to talk in a bit of detail about their experiences.

To request a hardcopy or easy read survey please email info@healthwatchrutland.co.uk or leave a message on 01572720381.

NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board (LLR ICB) is asking for people’s views on the care people can expect to receive towards the end of their life.

Working closely with other local organisations, the LLR ICB has developed ‘Our All-Age Palliative and End of Life Care Strategy’, and is seeking the views of patients, family carers, staff, the public and wider stakeholders, to ensure that the strategy reflects the needs of local people.

The strategy will inform the development of local services in the future, and its purpose is to make sure that people who are in the last stages of their lives receive the care they need to keep them independent for as long as possible, to be comfortable, that their dignity and wellbeing is maintained and that they can die in a place of their choosing and with proper support for families and carers.

In developing the strategy, the LLR ICB worked closely with local organisations involved in providing palliative and end of life care, their staff, local voluntary organisations and other partners. They also spoke to people receiving end of life care and to their relatives, and their experiences have been invaluable in helping to develop the strategy.

Key priorities have been identified for the next five years, to improve the equity, access, quality, personalisation and responsiveness of services for people at the end of their lives and for their loved ones.

People will have until Sunday 22 September 2024 to share their views in the following ways:

• Visit the LLR ICB website and completing a questionnaire:
• Email your views to: llricb-llr.beinvolved@nhs.net 
• Telephone: 0116 295 7572 to ask for a paper copy of the questionnaire or to receive information in a different format
• Write to: Freepost Plus RUEE–ZAUY–BXEG, End of Life Engagement, Leicestershire and Rutland Integrated Care Board, Room G30, Pen Lloyd Building, Leicestershire County Council, Leicester Road, Glenfield, Leicester LE3 8TB