News

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. 

Do you find communications from the NHS to you are easily understandable? Do they arrive on time and give you enough information?

The NHS communicates with us in many ways about health appointments, referrals to specialists and medications etc. You might receive a text message on your mobile phone or a telephone call for instance. There’s also face-to-face consultations, letters and emails. Often it is a combination of all of the above.

HWR has received feedback from the public that people often encounter problems with the administration and communications around moving between healthcare providers in the journey to receive diagnosis and treatment. This can happen especially with appointments, referrals, and medications management for instance. We now want to understand more about how you are finding the process of getting appointments and moving between different NHS services to receive care.

Do you find the communications easily understandable? Do they arrive on time and give you enough information? Equally, do you have a story about how administration and communication between services about you, and also directly with you, have worked really well?

You might be an occasional user of health services or you might be living with multiple physical or mental health conditions for which you need ongoing care. You might have just started out on a treatment for a newly diagnosed health concern or you might have been receiving healthcare from multiple clinics or services over a long period. All your stories matter – please share with us how you are finding the administration of your appointments and medications and how well your care and treatment are communicated when moving between your GP surgery and other healthcare services. 

Whether your experience is great or poor, please complete our short survey and let us know if you want to talk further about how you think things can be improved:

If you need a printed version of the survey or prefer to talk in person please email info@healthwatchrutland.co.uk or leave a message on the office voicemail 01572 730281 and we’ll call you back. 

Would you like to talk in more detail about your experiences of NHS communications and administration? If so, just add your contact details to register your interest below and we will be in touch to arrange a half-hour conversation by phone or in-person if you prefer.

Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire is running a survey on behalf of Teen Clinic Daventry. We want to hear and understand young people’s experiences using their services so that we can analyse what is working well and what can be improved to better provide help.

Teen Clinic Daventry is a clinic offering free drop-in sessions monthly for 11-18 year olds to get support. TCD is a partnership between health, education, the local community and the young people of Daventry. They aim to provide a service focussing on physical and mental health, sexual health and contraception support for young people living in Daventry and/or attending a school in the town.

Sarah Tudor, Teen Clinic Daventry Clinical Lead and General Practioner, said ‘Teen Clinic Daventry is an exciting collaborative service which grew in response to the needs and concerns of young people in Daventry. It is wonderful to be part of such an integrated young person focussed team. Our hope is to continue to grow the service, to develop our service provision and access for the young people of Daventry. As well as empowering them to make confident and positive health choices.  A huge thank you to everyone involved in the project.’