Helping to shape and Improve Health and Social Care Services in Hertfordshire – Our Annual Report for 2019/20
It has been a busy and varied year for Healthwatch Hertfordshire with activity developed to reflect a shift in our strategic direction. Our key roles of representing the voice of the patient, signposting and holding the system to account all remain central to our work, but we made some changes to our approaches. Our remit covers all of Hertfordshire, all its population and all its health and care services, so we prioritised.
As an example of this, you can read about the work we have done locally to engage communities and patients about the NHS long-term plan on page 12.
Achievements
A lot has happened in health and social care, even before the pandemic occurred, and the report highlights some of our achievements at both a National and local level, including:
- Involving the public in the NHS Long Term Plan
- Improving Health Outcomes for people with a Learning Disability
- Working with West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust to improve patient care through Co-production
- Hearing about experiences of LGBTQ+ communities in accessing and using services at the Herts Pride 2019 Event
- Supporting NHS England with their review of the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre
- Improving quality for elderly care patients at The Lister (East and North Herts NHS Trust)
Some highlights from our year:
- Our signposting team spent over 456 hours providing support and information via text, call or email to the people who contact us for help
- 568 people shared their Health and Social Care story through focus groups, our signposting service or at events around the County
- We received 136 compliments from the public and partners
- 3,698 members received our newsletter
Our aim going forward will be to consider the longer-term impact of the pandemic on physical and mental health. Our research projects are being restarted, for example our partnership work looking at improvements to the health and wellbeing of children in Stevenage.
At the same time, we will monitor plans for the NHS reset as it embarks on a recovery phase and research how health and social care services have supported the BAME community to understand the impact of COVID-19 on those groups.
