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Healthwatch NEL's latest newsletter!
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July—August Newsletter 2014
Join us and read on to find out what we have in store
for July & August 2014.
HEALTHWATCH NEL—JULY-AUGUST NEWSLETTER 2014
July-August
Newsletter
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014
CONTENT
Page 1
We have moved!
Page 2
Executive Board
Page 4
Annual General Meeting
Partner Programme
Page 3
Healthy Lives Healthy Futures (HLHF)
Page 5
Review of GP waiting times
Discharge arrangements
Page 7
Contact the team
Page 6
Volunteering Including Enter & View
Cruse Bereavement Care (Grimsby,
Cleethorpes and Louth Branch)
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014 1
The waiting is over! On 16 June 2014, the office team moved from their first floor room at 60
Newmarket Street to 146 Freeman Street, Grimsby, DN32 7AN (the former Rayner’s building).
We now occupy the left side frontage of the building and, as you can see, have clear signage for
people to find us. It is great to be able to be visible and, we trust, more accessible to our local
communities. We do thank Foresight for giving us the opportunity these premises present.
If you have not realised, we now have our own dedicated telephone number with answerphone:
(01472) 361459. We have also been joined from 4 July 2014 by Karen Smith, the Independent
Complaints Advocate for North East Lincolnshire. This will help us to better join up support for
people who may need help in complaining and following through the outcomes of this. Please
note that if you need advice about making a complaint, you still need to ring 08088023000 as you
can sometyimes be advised from that number without needing to involve the local Advocate.
Please note that we are holding a low key opening of the new premises but, because of the
space available, are restricting this to the office team and active volunteers. We are hoping this
will give an opportunity for press/photo coverage of the wider HWNEL team. However, we would
be happy for any subscriber to drop in and see us, especially if you have information about local
health or social care services which you believe would be useful for HWNEL.
We have moved!
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014 2
Executive Board
The Executive Board will be meeting on the
following dates for the rest of this financial year:
25 September 2014 at Grant Thorold Library,
Durban Road, Grimsby (11.30 a.m. to 1.30
p.m.)
18 November 2014 at Business Hove, 13
Dudley Street, Grimsby
20 January 2015 at Freeman Street Resource
Centre, Kent Street, Grimsby
19 March 2015 at Grimsby Neighbourhood
Centre, 289A Weelsby Street, Grimsby
Meetings will normally be at 12 noon for two
hours unless indicated otherwise. All Board
meetings are held in public and include a
Question Time item at the start of proceedings.
We are pleased to welcome Jane Mansfield to
the Board.
Jane has worked in local government in this area for some time mainly in housing and community services and will be valuable asset to the Board.
Jane writes: I am a local resident, having lived in Grimsby and Cleethorpes all my life. I am a mother of three lads (aged 18-21) and probably as a result of this have a strong interest in local sport especially football and cricket.
After school I went to Leeds University and gained a degree and following that I started working for the Local Authority. I started as a trainee in the Housing Department and worked my way up through different positions and disciplines including area management; allocations and lettings; and homelessness and advice. After a period of writing policy and strategy related documents I moved to the corporate centre to undertake similar work.
Other roles within the Council have continued with the same focus of working in a community setting, often supporting both individuals and groups ie within Neighbourhood Renewal Funding and Neighbourhood Management and Development.
I am very excited about being accepted on the Board of Healthwatch and hope to be able to use my substantial work and personal experiences to both encourage local people to come forward with relevant issues and to have a meaningful voice in the provision of the local health and social care services that they receive
We are also co-opting two young people on to
the Board (subject to satisfactory clearances)
and will provide full details once this process is
completed.
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014 3
Healthy Lives Healthy Futures (HLHF)
The public consultation on HLHF was launched on 30 June 2014. At this stage, there are just
two matters up for consideration:
The location of hyperacute stroke services (with a proposal that the temporary
arrangements at Scunthorpe General Hospital are made permanent).
The location of children’s ear, nose and throat surgery (with a proposal that these are
located at Diana Princess of Wales Hospital, Grimsby).
You can find full details of the consultation including background papers on the HLHF website:
http://www.healthyliveshealthyfutures.nhs.uk/
Or you can request details by writing to:
Freepost RSSJ-SAAB-KKUZ
Healthy Lives, Healthy Futures
5 Saxon Court
Europa Park
Grimsby
DN31 2UJ
Or by email at: [email protected] Or by calling on: 0800 915 5397
HWNEL has arranged a meeting to discuss the consultation with representatives of North East
Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Groups. This will take place on 30 July 2014 at 2.00 p.m.
at VANEL, The Elms, 22 Abbey Road, Grimsby. If you would like to attend this meeting, could
you please let the office team know? In addition, we are intending to give advance notice of key
questions that we would want addressing at the meeting. If after looking at the information
provided, you have a question you could want putting to these representatives, would you please
contact the office team by no later than 22 July 2014?
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014 4
Annual General Meeting
We held our AGM on 16 June 2-14 and there
were a total of 55 people present. We had
representatives from 12 health and social care
organisations holding stalls around the room, 6
of which were our new partners under the
Partner Programme and this was included in
press coverage in the Grimsby Telegraph on 25
June 2014. Did you see it? If not, we can
forward details on request.
Partner Programme
The Partner Programme continues to grow and we now have eight organisations signed up:
Age UK North East Lincolnshire
Alzheimers Society (North East Lincolnshire)
Booth Lifehouse
Foresight
Friendship at Home
Getting Hooked on Positive Activities (GHoPA)
Harbour Place
VANEL
As this scheme goes forward you will see entries from Partners in this newsletter and on our
Partners Page section of our website. Details of this scheme are included on our website under
the Board Papers for 29 April 2014 or you can find out more by speaking to Paul Glazebrook,
Partnership Co-ordinator.
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014 5
Review of GP waiting times
You may be aware that the time it normally takes to see a GP was the key issue raised in our
local survey earlier this year. This is a national as well as a local problem with an estimated
shortfall of 10,000 GP’s nationwide. We have been considering the wider picture and how we
might make a difference locally and our Executive Board is reconsidering our approach when it
meets on 15 July 2014. Although we want to look at the problem from the professional
perspective, our chief role is to reflect patient opinion by further involvement with local people.
We will keep you posted on developments outlining how you can directly contribute to this
important piece of work.
Discharge arrangements
Healthwatch England is currently
conducting an special inquiry into discharge
arrangements (from hospital or residential
units). There is a particular focus on the
experiences of older people, mental ill
health and homeless people. Locally we
are contributing to the inquiry by talking to
individuals and organisations in these
areas about unsatisfactory arrangements
especially where vulnerable people are
being discharged without appropriate
support being put into place.
We would really value hearing from you if
you have personal or family/friend
experiences where you felt this discharge
was not well planned or executed. All
information supplied will be anonymised to
protect the individuals concerned. We are
planning to make our own submission by
the end of July 2014 so we would welcome
information as soon as possible and by no
later than 27 July 2014.
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014 6
Cruse Bereavement Care (Grimsby, Cleethorpes and Louth Branch)
The death of someone very close is likely to bring the most overwhelming distress we ever
experience. To offer support at this time of need Cruse Bereavement Care deploys over 5000
volunteers, who operate from Branches across the UK. Last year the Grimsby Branch of Cruse
met 133 clients face to face, either individually or in groups and supported more by telephone or
by sending literature. But the demand is growing and currently grieving clients may have to wait
for up to three months before their support sessions begin.
So we urgently need to recruit and train new volunteers. No formal qualifications are required,
although they are welcome. Experience of life and personal qualities matter most. We are
looking for volunteers who can listen with understanding and be alongside a client in a quietly
supportive way, showing their commitment in their manner.
For further information please leave your contact details with our helpline, tel: 01472 814455 or email: [email protected]. We are also looking for a volunteer treasurer.
We are delighted to report that a programme of Enter and View work commenced at the end of
May and that the team has visited three residential homes so far. The plan is to carry out two of
these visits per month and to have a particular focus on treating people with dignity and respect.
In addition, they have carried out one visit to a local GP practice. Plans are also underway to
carry out visits to Diana Princess of Wales Hospital but this work will be carried out in conjunction
with our Healthwatch colleagues in North Lincolnshire and East Riding of Yorkshire so that a trust
-wide approach is given across Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Foundation Trust.
On the wider issue of volunteering, we still need to grow our resources across all our activities:
enter and view, engaging with people, research, reader’s panel and administrative support. One
thing we want to stress is that volunteers are invited to give what time they can, no volunteer is
full time, and most average an hour or two a week. We are also streamlining the volunteering
process and simplifying the role descriptions we have. A key role is the ability to talk to local
people about their experiences of health and social care and to feed this back to us. Now that we
have a Partner Programme there will be added opportunities to talk to their service users. Help
in this work would be particularly appreciated. Please speak to Karry in the office team if you are
interested.
Volunteering Including Enter & View
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire Newsletter July-August 2014
Contact The Team
Paul Glazebrook
Partnership Co-ordinator
Karry Stones
Research & Information
Tayo Davenport
Project Support Officer
Meet The Board
Kathleen Young
Chair
Malcolm Morland Esther Smith
Sam O’Brien Jane Mansfield
7
Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire
146 Freeman Street, Grimsby,
North East Lincolnshire, DN32 7AN.
