Your Voice matters – read about the work of your Hertfordshire health and care champion in our Annual Report 2021/22
"It has been a year of transformation, challenge and significant demand but with positive signs as we move into an era of ‘living with Covid-19’.
At Healthwatch Hertfordshire, our role has never been more important and your feedback is an essential part of restoring and, in some cases, transforming health and care services.
Informed by our research and engagement, which focussed on issues highlighted by the pandemic such as health inequalities and access to services, we continued to represent the patient voice, raising issues with NHS and care organisations and supporting people with advice and information. Looking ahead we will build on these achievements, focus on the issues and continue to listen and influence."
Our achievements
Our programme for the year remained focussed on our strategic priorities:
- concentrating our evidence based research programme on issues highlighted by the pandemic such as health inequalities and access to services including projects looking at Covid-19 vaccine take up and tackling health inequalities
- leading a range of projects to help create and develop new models of patient and community engagement across health and care partnerships as part of the new Integrated Care System (ICS)*
- listening to concerns including GP access, dentistry, mental health provision, hospital waiting lists and care home visitation and raising these with health and social care providers, sharing intelligence and holding the system to account from a patient and community perspective
- hearing voices with lived experience and achieving our priority to reach more diverse and seldom heard groups. Examples include:
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- our engagement with children and young people with a learning disability to test out a new app
- a co-production group where we worked with carers to develop new information resources that better empowered and supported Carers during mental health inpatient admission and discharge
- exploring Black and Asian people’s views towards, and experiences of, local healthcare and whether people think they are treated fairly in healthcare settings
- ensuring patient involvement in projects to redevelop local hospitals and ensuring that effective communication takes place
Some highlights from our year
- We provided 67,648 people with advice and information about health and care services
- We received 123 compliments telling us how we helped make things better.
- We reviewed all our communication approaches to ensure a clear and consistent purpose and style, as well as improved accessibility for all
- Over 3,000 Hertfordshire residents shared their health and care story with us, to help shape and improve healthcare services for the future
- We worked on ways to reduce worsening health inequalities by ensuring community voices are at the heart of design and change. For example we are designing and facilitating new patient involvement models across the ICS*
- We held 65 meetings with senior NHS and Care leaders and attended a further 66 Boards and Committees to ensure your voice and what matters most to you was represented and heard.
Thanks to all sectors working together creatively, we can make a difference and looking ahead we want to build on our achievements and our reputation across the local health and care systems and beyond.
* The Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care System (ICS) brings together local NHS organisations and local government to look at how services will evolve and become sustainable over the next five years, to deliver better health, patient care and ensure services are affordable for years to come.
To find out more about our work during the year download the full Annual Report here:
If you require this report in a different format, please get in touch.
