What you told us: June 2024

What you told us: June 2024

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This month we continued to hear about communication issues and poor quality of care at hospitals in the region. There were also several positive comments about the quality of care received from GP surgeries.

We raised with a primary care group that a link on its website wasn’t working. The practice manager replied to say that they had fixed the link and thanked us for letting them know. Patients were now able to access the information in the weblink.

Negative feedback

A woman told us about the problems she and her husband had with the Anima system at their GP. They have to use Anima to book appointments and patients are actively discouraged from ringing the surgery. They say Anima is not intuitive – when the email is received about the appointment, the only option to reply is ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Husband wrote “I would like to see someone in person about this” and got a reply saying, “You have cancelled this appointment”. Husband now chooses to go to A&E for assistance as says it’s quicker than waiting two to three weeks for a GP appointment. (Castle Morpeth resident)

Positive feedback

A gentleman contacted us and said that he has experienced very good care at his GP surgery. He needs regular repeat prescriptions and likes that fact that he can walk straight in, fill in a repeat prescription form at the desk, hand it in, then walk just two minutes down the road to the pharmacy. On one occasion he fell over at home and went straight to his GP surgery expecting to be told he’d have to book an appointment. They asked him to take a seat and he was seen by a GP within 20 minutes. He likes knowing that he can drop-in in this way if he needs to and won’t be turned away. (Cramlington, Bedlington and Seaton Valley resident)

You can read more in our short feedback report for June 2024

The value of listening: Annual Report 2023-24

The value of listening: Annual Report 2023-24

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Healthwatch Northumberland Annual Report 2023-24

This year over 12,000 people shared their experiences of health and social care services with us, helping to raise awareness of issues and improve care, or came to us for clear advice and information about topics such as mental health and the cost of living crisis. We published 20 reports about the improvements people would like to see in health and social care services. Our most popular report was Lloyds Pharmacy Enter and View which highlighted the negative impact for patients at the start of pharmacy closures in the county.

How we’ve made a difference this year

  • We drew attention to the impact of pharmacy changes on vulnerable people in the South East of the county
  • We helped the NHS understand why parents in Blyth might attend A&E with a poorly child rather than contact a GP
  • Two young volunteers moved onto higher education with knowledge and experience gained from their time at Healthwatch Northumberland
  • Our website gave people the health information they needed. Our most popular pages were mental health, dementia and LGBT support
  • Our ‘Listening AGM’ enabled members of the public to speak directly to senior decision-makers about the health and care changes they wanted
  • 60 people at our online session heard from the charity Battle Scars about the myths and realities of self-harm
  • We published a guide to help with cost of living pressures and distributed it widely across the county
  • We listened to parents about Health Visiting Services. The provider is now working on an action plan based on our recommendations

Listening to your experiences

Services can’t make improvements without hearing your views. That’s why, over the last year, we have made listening to feedback from all areas of the community a priority. This allows us to understand the full picture, and feed this back to services and help them improve. Our report outlines how we’ve listened to the experiences of local people, including our work to hear from families their experiences of Health Visiting Services, our information on how to get the most from your GP surgery, and how we made sure the views of people living in Harbottle were listened to around a proposal to introduce a mobile healthcare unit in the village.

Hearing from all communities

We have continued to make sure we hear from communities we hear from less frequently. Over the past year we have done this by:

  • Holding monthly drop-in sessions in all areas of the county
  • Hearing from people with learning disabilities about their experiences of health and social care
  • Being part of the Fishermen’s Mission Seafit events at Amble Harbour, bringing services to fishermen, who can find accessing care services difficult due to the nature of their job
  • Working with senior Adult Social Care staff to create the Adult Social Care People’s Advisory Panel
Information and signposting

We can provide confidential and free information to help you understand your options and get the help you need, in line with a ‘making every contact count’ approach. Whether it’s finding a GP practice, making a complaint or choosing a good care home for a loved one – you can count on us. For example, we heard from someone who was having some struggles in their home, and it was unclear what support was already in place. They were unaware of their GP’s Social Prescribing Service, so we referred them on for some help. As a result of this referral and the excellent work of the Social Prescribing Link Worker, the person now has help with weekly cleaning and household tasks as well as receiving a small cash grant for help with heating, some shopping vouchers and other food items to help with the cost of living.

Our online information sessions were a chance for over 250 people to hear from a wide variety of local and national charities and organisations. These included Eating Disorders North East, NECA Gambling North East, Arthritis Action, The Menopause Charity and The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy, which spoke about the benefits of strength training.

As we were increasingly hearing about the effects on people’s health due to the rising cost of living, we decided to collate information on different support services that exist in Northumberland and produce a printed ‘cost of living support in Northumberland‘ booklet.

Next steps

Over the next year we will keep working across the county, reaching out especially to people less often listened to, for example, people whose work or lives mean they face difficulties in using health and care services. Thank you to everyone who responded to our Annual Survey and for telling us what you think we should work on next year. You said these are

  • Care in the home
  • Hospital discharge
  • Pharmacy

We will continue to work on GP access, dentistry, mental health and audiology services.

View the Healthwatch Northumberland Annual Report 2023-24 or download a pdf version.

 

What we heard in May 2024

What we heard in May 2024

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland May 2024

Poor communication was the common theme we heard about again this month, with negative comments about hospitals and GP surgeries not communicating with each other, and patients not getting clear communication from the services either.

We were invited by Healthwatch England to give a presentation on our Autism and Young People Report that we produced in the summer of 2022, as an example of good practice. The presentation was given to Healthwatch England’s Research and Insight Network Group. Partly as a result of the feedback on this presentation Healthwatch England has set up a special forum devoted to working with patients with ADHD and autism on its internal webchat site.

Positive feedback

A patient told us “I had an appointment for an ECG. I reported to hospital outpatients reception where I was quickly and efficiently checked in. When I entered the ECG waiting room I was met by a nurse who greeted me politely and confirmed my appointment. One minute later I was taken by another nurse who carried out my ECG check. He was professional and polite and confident. My whole visit lasted around 20 minutes but I must say I felt in very safe hands and these guys were a shining example of pure professionalism. Well done and thanks.”

Negative feedback

A lady reported that her husband had been waiting for two years for keyhole knee surgery. There had been poor communication between the GP, the consultant and the physiotherapist, with each one referring to the next one and going round in circles each time, leading to the long delay.

Find out more in our short report

 

Online event – Northumbria Joint Musculoskeletal and Pain Service (JMAPS)

Online event – Northumbria Joint Musculoskeletal and Pain Service (JMAPS)

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Join us on Friday 12 July at 1pm to hear from Nick Livadas and Kathy Mills who will give us an introduction to Northumberland’s Joint Musculoskeletal and Pain Service (JMAPS).

This online session will give an overview of what JMAPS is, how people can access the service and how it can help people with musculoskeletal conditions or persistent pain. There will be a chance to ask questions after the presentation.

This session is suitable for anyone who wants to know more about the support on offer through JMAPS.

This event has now passed.

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Your feedback April 2024

Your feedback April 2024

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland April 2024

In April the most common issue reported to us was poor communication from service providers. This includes patients having trouble navigating telephone systems or difficulty using online triage systems such as eConsult, at GP surgeries. We also had comments around the cost of accessing private podiatry and dental services.

Our online talk was from Northumberland County Council’s Health Trainer service. We were able to record this session and A good number of people came along to the session and we had permission to record this month’s talk – the link to this and previous sessions can be found on our YouTube channel.

Find out more in our April 2024 feedback report

Online event – Crohn’s & Colitis UK

Online event – Crohn’s & Colitis UK

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Join us on Friday 14 June at 1pm to hear from Ben Rutter and Jess Turner of Crohn’s & Colitis UK. They will talk about Crohn’s and Colitis, and the support available for people living or working with these conditions.

They will cover topics including recent campaigns, policy and research and will also share results from the recent Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) UK local reports in the North East.

This session is suitable for people who live or work in Northumberland and are living with or supporting someone with Crohn’s or Colitis. There will be a chance to ask questions after the presentation.

This event has now passed – watch the recording on YouTube.

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Have your say on the NHS Constitution

Have your say on the NHS Constitution

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The Government has launched a consultation on the NHS Constitution, which sets out your rights as an NHS patient. It also includes the commitments the NHS aims to achieve so you get high quality care.

The Government is planning to make several changes to the NHS Constitution. You can tell the Government what you think about the proposals, as well as any other changes you think should be made.

What is the NHS Constitution?

The NHS Constitution outlines the founding values of the NHS and details the rights, commitments, and obligations of patients and staff, as well as their roles in ensuring the NHS works effectively.

The NHS Constitution plays a vital role in helping the NHS set the right culture and focus on what matters most to the public. It also tells you about your rights. For example, if a GP needs to refer you for a physical or mental health condition, in most cases, you have the legal right to choose the hospital or service you’d like to go to.

What is the consultation about?

The Government must update the Constitution via a public consultation every ten years to reflect what people value most when it comes to their health and social care services. The Government is planning to make several changes to the NHS Constitution. For example, they want to introduce a new right for patients and their loved ones to be able to request a second opinion when a hospital patient’s condition deteriorates.

The Government wants to hear your views about their proposals, as well as other changes you think should be made.

What are the proposals?

The proposals include:

Getting a second opinion: Changes that would empower patients and their families to ask for a second opinion on treatment if their condition or the condition of their loved one deteriorates. The rule would see more power put in the hands of patients.

Carer rights: A new right to involve unpaid carers as early as possible when a patient is discharged.

Patient communication: A commitment to ensuring the NHS communicates information about appointments in a clear and timely way to help patients meet their responsibility to keep or cancel appointments.

Health inequalities: A plan to strengthen the NHS focus on health inequalities by committing services to work with partners to understand the needs of their local communities.

Why is the consultation important?

We should all expect high standards of care, whether for emergency care, a dentist appointment, or a check-up with a GP. However, many people don’t know their rights under the Constitution. The consultation is your opportunity to learn more, tell the Government what you think about their proposals, and say if they should make other changes.

 

Have your say on the NHS Constitution: 10 year review

The consultation is now closed.

Harbottle update

Harbottle update

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Harbottle mobile health unit proposal

We recently helped Northumbria Primary Care, working with North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board, to hear what local people think of the proposal to move the GP/nurse clinic, which is currently provided from Harbottle Village Hall, into a mobile healthcare unit. A  survey was designed by Northumbria Primary Care, and distributed to patients of The Rothbury Practice, other local residents plus the local councillor, parish council and also more widely. Several meetings and drop-in sessions gave people the chance to ask questions and feed back on the proposal. The results of this can be found in our engagement report. North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board will make the final decision on whether the proposal will go ahead.

 

Harbottle mobile health unit proposal engagement report

Online event – Sorted

Online event – Sorted

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Online event – Sorted

Join us on Friday 10 May, 1pm-2pm, to hear from Helena Swarbrook from Sorted (Northumberland’s Substance Misuse Service for young people).

Helena will talk to us about substance misuse, general substance awareness, harm reduction and the first steps in making changes. She will also outline the information, advice and support provided by Sorted across Northumberland for under 18s.

There will be a chance to ask questions after the presentation.

This session is suitable for anyone concerned about their own or a loved one’s drugs misuse or professionals supporting people where drugs may be a concern.

This event has now passed – watch the recording on our YouTube channel.

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Water fluoridation plans

Water fluoridation plans

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There are plans to extend water fluoridation in the North East to help tackle preventable tooth decay.

Tooth decay is the most common oral disease affecting children and young people, causing pain and distress, preventable hospital admissions, sleepless nights and missed days from school. Ensuring drinking water contains the recommended level of fluoride is an effective way to help prevent tooth decay.

Some areas of the North East already have tap water which contains fluoride at these recommended levels and this has been very effective at reducing dental decay for the population living in these areas. In Northumberland, around 101,000 people are already supplied with artificially fluoridated water.

In the East and North of the county, fluoridated communities include Alnwick, Alnmouth, Howick, Embleton, High Newton by the Sea and Seahouses. In the West of the county, fluoridated communities include Haltwhistle, Henshaw, Haydon Bridge, Corbridge, Heddon on the Wall and Prudhoe. These fluoridation schemes have been in place since 1968.

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) would like to hear your views on expanding water fluoridation in the North East, including those areas of Northumberland without fluoridation.

This consultation is now closed.