Community Assembly: News and Update

Simon Barfoot, Healthy Lifestyles Programme Officer at East Herts District Council and Ryan Ansell, Health and Sport Strategy Manager at Stevenage Borough Council gave an insightful presentation about local level health prevention initiatives. The presentation focused on place-based health inequalities, which included examples of specific health interventions and initiatives they are working on together.

Following this, Hannah Estrada-Bartlett, Project Coordinator for ENHHCP, provided a recap of the composition, strategy and priority areas of patient and community involvement in the Partnership. A discussion followed about hearing the patient voice, expanding patient engagement and making information more accessible, acknowledging that the role of patient reps is still new and evolving.

Sam Tappenden, Director of Development for ENHHCP then provided an update on partnership developments. This included the work of the Transformation Group, an upcoming workshop on growth and planning with greater involvement of voluntary health and care sectors and scoping work on streamlining processes across the partnership. He concluded that there is a huge opportunity for the Community Assembly to influence and inform priorities of the partnership as we move towards the Health and Care Partnership model, and how important it will continue to be to have the patient voice at different levels.

Chair of the Patient Engagement Forum (PEF), Alan Bellinger, then gave a thorough and informative presentation about the work of the PEF and its latest developments. Key issues included digital access, neurodiversity and networking with PPGs. He also shared that the new PEF Networking Model is being developed and will be launched in March this year.

Next, Mefino Ogedegbe, the ICB’s Community Pharmacy Clinical Lead provided us with a helpful update on primary care developments in community pharmacy. A new initiative - ‘Pharmacy First’ - launched in January that facilitates community pharmacy to consult on and treat: sinusitis, insect bites, shingles, UTIs, impetigo, sore throats and acute otitis media. It is a safe and effective service which allows the supply and provision of antibiotics and other medication if required. 98% of community pharmacies across the county have opted in to provide the service. 

Lastly, Miriam Blom-Smith, Research Officer at Healthwatch Hertfordshire (HwH) gave the Assembly a general update from the Research and Engagement Team at Healthwatch Hertfordshire, outlining a wide range of recent, current, and upcoming projects.