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health and social care feedback Northumberland May 2023

What you told us: June 2023

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland June 2023

During June you told us about your continued frustration at your experiences of making a GP appointment. Poor communication, both with the public and between services, came out strongly as a theme this month – sometimes with serious repercussions.

This month we have reviewed our Here to Hear session venues. We have visited a lot of potential venues to gauge how they will help us hear from different communities. Further details of the new venues will be announced soon.

We also published our Annual Report for 2022/23, which gives an overview of the work we have done over the past 12 months in Northumberland, to engage with communities and where we have worked with commissioners and providers to highlight key issues.

Read our short report below to find out more.

Healthwatch Northumberland report June 2023

 

 

 

 

health and social care feedback Northumberland May 2023

What you told us: May 23

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland May 2023

During May you told us about the difficulties you were having ordering and getting hold of prescription medicine. We also heard from a number of people that they were still having issues booking a GP appointment. Poor service in local hospitals was another theme from feedback this month.

This month we spent time listening to customers of Lloyds Pharmacy in Sainsbury’s Cramlington, about the impact of the planned closure of the pharmacy this summer. We visited the pharmacy, which is the only 100 hours per week pharmacy in Cramlington, at different times of the day and week, to speak to customers and the wider community, to see what effect the closure would have on local people and other pharmacies in the area. We also provided an online feedback form and heard from 230 people.

As well as our regular Here to Hear drop-in sessions in Berwick, Blyth, Prudhoe, Morpeth and Bedlington, we attended events which included Prudhoe Health Week, the Fishermen’s Mission SeaFit event in Amble and the Choppington Disability Group monthly session.

Read our short report below to find out more.

Healthwatch Northumberland report May 2023

health and social care Northumberland

What you told us: October to December 2020

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As the independent champion for people who use health and social care services, Healthwatch Northumberland is a listening organisation working across Northumberland, interested in what people think is working well in services and what can be improved. We act on what people are saying, sharing their views with those who have the power to make change happen. We also help people find the information they need about services in their area and record this as ‘signposting’.

People who use health and social care services tell us about their experiences throughout the year. This report shares a summary of the feedback collected from October to December 2020. During this period, we have continued to work in different ways due to the continuation of the Covid-19 pandemic. The next report will cover January to March 2021.

This quarter we received feedback and enquiries from:

• Telephone calls, emails, website and social media (73%)
• Talking to people at online engagement events (25%)
• Through a third party (2%)

Areas of Focus
We are open to all feedback about health and social care services. Responses to our 2020 Annual Survey helped us to identify a specific Areas of Focus which we are prioritising in 2020/21; this includes mental health services, dementia and GP services. Covid-19 has meant changes have been made to health and social care services. Patients and carers’ experiences and signposting requirements are likely to have been different during this time. For this reason, we have also chosen to focus on any feedback we receive which is related to covid19 and these changes.

 

Read the October to December 2020 Report