1. Art and Diseño

Issue 21
Welcome to the twenty first edition of Healthwatch Sunderland (HWS)
news bulletin. This edition covers:
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HWS Information and Engagement Work
National Campaign on Skin Disease
HWS Dementia Report—Positive Developments
HWS Workplan Update on some key work
Q: What do you think of Consultation?
Care Quality Commission (CQC) Report on City Hospitals Sunderland
Your Voice—Monthly Issues
Consultation on Pharmaceutical Services in Sunderland
HWS Small Sparks Resource
In the News—Training for Care Workers
North East Ambulance Service—Friends and Family Test
Happy New Year!
Welcome to the first newsletter of the
year. We’re off to a great start with four new Board members, the
launch of our Small Sparks resource and the focus of our engagement
team on truly identifying hard to reach groups.
Some of the success we wish to build upon is the positive response to
our health and social care surveys which is having a real influence on
our work. We are continuing to develop the role of our volunteers,
especially around Enter & View (1st one to start imminently!). We also
have an open and flexible workplan which we are willing to change in
response to new information and concerns from the public.
Partnership is key for this year and our focus
will be to support and identify those seldom
heard voices, the smaller groups perhaps with
limited resources, so that the voice of everybody is heard. Best wishes from all of us in the
Healthwatch Sunderland team!
HWS Information…
Health & Social Care Surveys
Since we launched this in November we
have had 89 Surveys on health and
social care sent back to us (including 20
surveys through our engagement feedback). This has produced some excellent
in-depth feedback direct from service
users which is used to look at our
monthly issues and areas for our workplan. Please keep the surveys coming—
only takes 2 minutes!
www.healthwatchsunderland.com/
healthwatch-sunderland-surveys
Information and Signposting Service
Our Freephone Information & Signposting
Service 0800 023 8840 has since April
2014 had 83 calls. We have been able to
provide health and social care information
as well as signposting to complaints
services.
We have had excellent
evaluation of the service from those
feeding back.
Engagement Work….
The HWS Engagement Team, Joe Hogan (Engagement Coordinator) and
Kelly Wilson (Engagement Officer) have been undertaking a busy
programme to talk to groups about emerging issues in health and social
care. In the last 2 months, they have carried out 14 community visits
and 4 consultation events as well as information drop-in stands at
Sunderland Library and Sunderland Royal Hospital.
Both Joe and Kelly are working closely with our
Enter & View and Information Volunteers to
develop a programme of activity over the next
few weeks. We have already started planning
our first Enter & View visit of a local GP
Practice and more information to follow—watch
this space!
Our engagement work involves both general
promotion of Healthwatch Sunderland as well as
in-depth and targeted activity which is linked to
our Workplan. If your group would like to speak
to Joe or Kelly to share issues or find out more,
contact them on 0191 5147145.
New Campaign on Skin Disease…
HWS Dementia Report—positive developments
We are pleased to feed back that our report around Dementia, Hospital
Discharge and Elderly Hospital Care has been
picked up by Sunderland Clinical Commissioning
Group (CCG) with a very positive and active
response.
The CCG has submitted a paper on Dementia to
their Governing Body meeting in January with an
action outlined which is “Keep under review the
perceived gap in primary care identified by
Sunderland Healthwatch “Call for Evidence”
report as the roll out of Dementia training
happens in Practices and Integrated Locality
Teams become live in each Locality”. Read the
HWS “Call for Evidence” Report at http://
www.healthwatchsunderland.com/sites/default/files/
uploads/Call_for_evidence_report.pdf
Be our eyes and ears in your community ! Join us as an
Information Volunteer...
We are still recruiting volunteer Information Champion.
Read more information about the role at
http://www.healthwatchsunderland.com/volunteer.
Or call 0191 5147145 if you would like to speak to a member of staff.
Healthwatch Sunderland : Update on some key work
Issue
Action
Mental Health Transition—
reported gaps in service
provision from child to
adult mental health
services
Healthwatch Sunderland has undertaken in-depth
intelligence gathering. We have spoken to
commissioners, “expert” organisations and service
users around transition. We discovered that
improvements have been made already in this area with
further plans for the coming year so we have reported
to the Board that this issue may not need further action
at present.
We are currently exploring with partners around public
involvement in consultation around changes in the
provision of mental health services (called the Principal
Care Pathways) and what the outcomes of the changes
have been.
Mental Health Service
Changes
Health Charter for people
with Learning Disabilities
Nutrition in Hospital
Urgent Care Centres
Healthwatch Sunderland are working with Sunderland
People First to promote a new Health Charter to
support the health of people with Learning Disabilities.
An essential part of the process is to consult with
people with a learning disability and support
professionals around key areas of health and thoughts
about having a Sunderland Health Charter.
Healthwatch Sunderland and Sunderland People First
have carried out Consultation with the Patient Forum
at Washington Multi-Purpose Centre. There was an
overwhelmingly positive response to the Health
Charter—further consultation with carers and
professionals is currently being undertaken.
We have had an in-depth meeting with Sunderland Royal
Hospital regarding the Red Tray Scheme (where people
needing assistance with feeding are identified with
meals provided on a red tray). In addition Kevin Morris,
our Chair, has been on a ward visit discussing issues
around nutrition. We did learn that the Red Tray
Scheme is just part of a general assessment around the
monitoring of food and nutrition. For example each
adult patient must have an initial nutrition assessment,
which can lead to referrals to a dietician or the use of
food supplements. There is also a six step guide that
the hospital has to follow in regard to maintaining nutrition.
Our feeling, based upon our ward visit and meeting with
the hospital, is that whilst it has been valuable to
remind people that from time to time re-looking at
areas like the Red Tray Scheme is important, overall we
have no evidence of concerns with nutrition and food
quality. In this regard, we have also been reassured by
the recent Care Quality Commission report on
Sunderland Royal Hospital that stated “patients are able
to access suitable nutrition and hydration including
special diets. Patients reported that, on the whole, they
were content with the quality and quantity of food”. We
have agreed with our Board to remove the Red Tray
Scheme from our workplan.
We have had 10 concerns raised to us recently from
members of the public about the role of Urgent Care
Centres. We certainly need to respond to your
concerns and are currently discussing the best
approach to take on this issue.
Q:
What do you think of Consultation?
Our experience of engaging with health and social care organisations
in Sunderland around consultation has certainly been interesting. We
have made excellent relationships with key people in the statutory
and voluntary organisations who seem keen for us to pass on your
views. On some occasions we have also offered advice on how we
would recommend that consultation is undertaken, which has been
acted upon. Generally our observations are:
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There seems to be a great deal of effort around consultation at the start of a
project
Consultation presented as final reports seems to include large (sometimes
100+ pages) documents conducted through “Survey Monkey”-type
questionnaires. We wonder how involving and accessible this approach is for
the non-expert
There is a huge reliance upon the Area Networks, which appear to be
organised and run by the statutory services. This seems to be the dominant
model of public consultation in Sunderland
We are just sharing our initial thoughts, but some ideas we would be interested in
hearing your views on are:
Q: Do you think final draft consultation documents should have a
plain English and easy read version to aid consultation?
Q: What are the advantages and disadvantages of consulting through
“Survey Monkey” questionnaires?
Q: Are there voices in Sunderland that need extra support to be
heard around health issues? What are the best mechanisms of
reaching these people?
Q: Would there be any interest in some kind of centrally-based
health forum (such as HealthNet in South Tyneside http://
blissability.webs.com/healthnet.htm run by the community rather
than the statutory sector
Q: Are you happy with consultation generally in Sunderland or do you
have ideas for improvement?
Q: Do you think it would be beneficial to have quality standards
around public consultation—a type of “kite mark” to highlight
good practice in the area?
As always, we welcome your thoughts, so if you want to share your
ideas with us please don’t hesitate to make contact. Ring us on 0191
5147145 or email [email protected] with your
feedback, comments and views!!
CQC Report:
City Hospitals Sunderland
City Hospitals Sunderland NHS
Foundation Trust rated as Good overall by Chief Inspector of Hospitals
England’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals has rated the services provided by City
Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust (which runs Sunderland Royal Hospital and
Sunderland Eye Infirmary) as Good overall following a Care Quality Commission (CQC)
inspection in September. Trust services were rated as Good for being effective,
caring, and well led, and as Requires Improvement for being safe and responsive. CQC
found that the trust had an established and stable senior leadership team, which staff
said was visible and approachable. The majority of staff felt engaged and involved in
the development of their services, and expressed pride in the person-centred care
delivered. The trust had a clear vision and strategy for the future delivery of services.
All areas of the trust visited were clean, and there were good infection control
procedures in place. Patients told inspectors that they were happy with the quality
and quantity of food, and were able to access special diets if these were needed.
Patients were provided with care in a compassionate way and were treated with
dignity and respect.
Inspectors noted that there was effective communication and collaboration between
multidisciplinary teams. The children and young people’s service had an outstanding
leadership team, and regularly implemented innovative improvements. Critical care
was compassionate and provided psychological and emotional support services for
people after they had left the unit. The importance of patient and public feedback
being heard and acted on was recognised across the trust. Inspectors found, however,
that there were staff shortages at Sunderland Royal Hospital. This was a particular
problem on the medical wards, although the trust was actively recruiting to fill
vacancies. There were no concerns about staffing levels or skill mix at Sunderland Eye
Infirmary. Improvements were also needed at Sunderland Royal Hospital in medicines
management and to the incident reporting and investigation process.
The full reports on the trust and on each hospital are available from: http://
www.cqc.org.uk/provider/RLN.
CQC’s Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, said:
“When we inspected the hospitals run by City Hospitals Sunderland NHS Foundation
Trust, much of what we saw was good. We saw that staff took great pride in their
work, and that they felt the leadership team were approachable. Teams
communicated well with each other, and we saw some good examples of
collaborative working to improve the treatment and care people received. We did,
however, also see a number of areas where the trust needed to make improvements.
If the trust listens to what we have said – which they have told us they will – I can
see no reason why they should not be able to receive a Good rating (or better) across
the board when we next return. People are entitled to receive treatment and care in
services which are consistently safe, effective, caring and responsive to their needs.
The trust has told us they have listened to our inspectors’ findings and begun to take
action where it is required. We will return in due course to check that the
improvements needed have been made.” The inspection team, which included
doctors, nurses, hospital managers, trained members of the public, CQC inspectors
and analysts, visited the hospitals over a period of four days. They also made
unannounced visits as part of the inspection.
Your Voice:
What you have told Healthwatch
Sunderland In December….
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positive comments received about GPs—including Pallion Health Centre “very
good care and support” ; Deerness Medical Centre “total excellence”;
Barmston Health Centre “all the practice nurses are very helpful and caring”
and the Galleries Health Centre “you do not have a problem contacting the
Galleries”.
5 negative comments about GPs—largely around appointments, administrative
processes and quality of care.
3 positive comments about Sunderland Royal Hospital - including around A&E
“I was well looked after from A&E”; and the Macmillan Team “total
excellence”
3 negative comments about Sunderland Royal Hospital—around waiting times,
diagnosis information and support and quality of care.
2 positive comments on Pharmacies— Lloyds Pharmacy in Pallion Health Centre
“I use the same pharmacy all the time as it is very good and fully
accessible….never had any problems”; Leema Pharmacy, Tunstall Road “The
manager and her staff are excellent”
2 positive comments about Walk-in Centres—Houghton
“prompt efficient
service”.
5 negative comments about Walk-in Centres. Especially around changes to
services “walk-in centres are closing”; “I walked in thinking it was a walk-in
centre and was rather abruptly informed that they aren’t”; “people are not
made aware that they need an appointment until they turn up”; “concerned
about walk-in centres and what is happening”; “had to use A&E when a walk
-in centre would have been better”
1 positive comment on Dentist — “good”
1 negative comment on dentists – “very poor as cannot get an appointment and
the dentist I used to see is retired”.
2 negative comments on Ambulance Services – around waiting times and call
prioritisation.
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positive comments about Social Care Services—including Sunderland Home
Care Associates “get very good care and support” ; Primrose Care Home,
Hetton “staff were excellent, very caring and professional”; Urgent Care
Team and Care Manager “both excellent service”; Community Matron Service
“first class in every way”.
3 negative comments about Social Care—largely around adult social care and
support for people with sensory disabilities.
Thank you for sharing your information with us to help improve services in
Sunderland. Please keep filling in our Healthwatch Surveys and telling us your
views. They are online at http://www.healthwatchsunderland.com/
healthwatch-sunderland-surveys or call us on 0191 5147145 for paper
copies.
Consultation: Pharmaceutical Services in Sunderland
Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment 2015 Statutory Consultation Sunderland
Sunderland City Council must publish a Pharmaceutical Needs
Assessment (PNA) which details current and planned pharmacy
provision in Sunderland by April 2015. What is the Pharmaceutical
Needs Assessment?
The Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) covers the following:
the number and location of community-based pharmacies in the
county
 the range of pharmaceutical services and locally commissioned
services and ease of access to those services against the needs of our
communities to identify any current or future gaps in the services
provided
 how services provided by local pharmacies could be developed in line
with Sunderland’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy
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NHS England will refer to the final assessment before proposing any
changes or developing any new pharmacy services in Sunderland.
The consultation draft document is available here and you can
comment on it during the 60 days statutory consultation period
between 9th January 2015 and 10th March 2015.
http://sunderland-consult.limehouse.co.uk/portal/chief_executives_1/
pna_stat_consultation
Healthwatch Sunderland Small Sparks Resource
What is Healthwatch Sunderland Small Sparks
Resource?
The Healthwatch Sunderland Small Sparks Resource offers a
small amount of funding and the support of our experienced
team.
In order to help shape services in Sunderland, we need to
hear about people’s experiences. The Small Sparks funding is
designed to encourage people to come up with ideas that will help support engagement with
those sections of the community that are more difficult to reach.
We want to hear from groups and individuals across the city who can help us to reach those
people whose voices are seldom heard.
How does it work?
If you have an idea about engaging a hard to reach group, then let us know how you can
help make it happen. We may support your idea for an event that will help us capture the
views of people in your area.
Hard to reach groups could be any section of the community that you think would like to
have the opportunity to talk about their experiences, good and bad but who would normally
not get the opportunity to do so.
How much money is available?
The amount requested must not exceed £500.
How to apply
To apply for the small sparks engagement resource fund you need to send in an application
form, outlining your idea for engagement, who are the groups that will be involved and how
the fund could be used to make it happen. An application form is enclosed with this
pack.Completed forms to be returned to Healthwatch Sunderland, 112a High Street West,
Sunderland, SR1 1TX or email [email protected].
Criteria
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The people involved must live in Sunderland.
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The application must be for a ‘one off’ engagement and cannot be used for ongoing
revenue.
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The fund can only be used for the purpose of facilitating engagement. For example,
venue hire, refreshments or transport, organising a speaker, advertising an event etc.
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The fund cannot be used to buy equipment.
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The fund cannot be used for a salary.
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The fund must meet at least one of our stated objectives.
Contact
Healthwatch Sunderland Engagement Coordinator, Joe Hogan 0191 5147145 email
[email protected] or find out more online here http://
www.healthwatchsunderland.com/resources/small-sparks-engagement-resource
In the News…
National training certificate for care workers to
be introduced from March 2015
http://www.carehome.co.uk/news/article.cfm/
id/1563512/training-certificate-required-for
How you can help Healthwatch
Sunderland….
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Join us as a member
http://www.healthwatchsunderland.com/become-member
Fill in our Health & Social Care Surveys
http://www.healthwatchsunderland.com/healthwatchsunderland-surveys
Be a volunteer
http://www.healthwatchsunderland.com/volunteer
Let us know your experiences
Come to our Network Events
North East Ambulance Service Friends & Family test….
From April 2015 North East Ambulance Service (NEAS) and other ambulance services
have to implement the Friends and Family Test. This is for patients they see and treat
but don’t convey to hospital and patient transport service users. Mechanisms are now
in place across the region.
NEAS would like your support to promote their on-line patient experience
opportunities. There are a variety of ways people can provide feedback.
Online – patients can provide quick feedback on their service (Friends and Family test)
or complete a more comprehensive survey. To do this visit - www.neas.nhs.uk/
yourviews or use the QR code below to take you straight there.
NEAS are also undertaking surveys in different hospitals weekly via tablets, people can
go online to provide feedback or email them and stickers are in patient transport
vehicles telling patients the various ways they can provide feedback. Every patient not
taken to hospital (see and treat patients) will be provided with a 1 page, simple, paper
survey to complete. NEAS are asking that patients complete this and return it free post
by folding it in half and sticking the gummed section together. Patients can also
provide their views on line, via the QR code below or via email.
Postal Surveys - NEAS will continue to collect data on their
services via a postal survey to a random sample of patients each
month
In addition to these changes, NEAS have also updated their
website to include more information on all of the involvement
opportunities available and introduced some new ones –
visit: www.neas.nhs.uk/get-involved
606 followers
on twitter
with reach of
80,000+ !!
Your Voice Matters!
Help Healthwatch Sunderland to strengthen the voice of the community by getting
involved ... Groups and individuals can join online at http://
www.healthwatchsunderland.com/become-member. Or telephone us on 0191 514 7145, or
email [email protected],
visit our website www.healthwatchsunderland.com or write to us at 112a High Street West,
Sunderland, SR1 1TX.
If you wish to be removed from our e-news mailing list, please send an email to
[email protected] or telephone 0191 5147145 and state you
wish to be removed from this mailing list.
Wishing everyone Very Best Wishes for 2015
from your Healthwatch Sunderland team!