Agenda item

Report presented by Anne-Marie Dean

The Board received the Healthwatch Havering Annual Report 2013/14. The report had been written in line with the standards set out by Healthwatch England and outlined the work that had been carried out with local organisations.

The launch of Healthwatch both nationally and in Havering in April 2013 coincided with the emerging concerns about standards of care in health and social care settings.  Locally, concerns arose following a series of adverse Care Quality Commission (CQC) and other reports about care in Queen’s Hospital and in several residential care homes.  Healthwatch Havering had a dedicated team who deal specifically with the concerns raised with Queen’s Hospital, and were about to submit their findings to the CQC prior to its inspection.

All the recommendations that had been made on the concerns raised in respect of care homes had been taken on board and the specific care homes now had an action plan to follow.  It was noted that when inspections are made, checks such as ensuring the bath taps were working were also included.

Recently Healthwatch Havering had been developing relationships with the local community, and had worked on services for people with Dementia and for people with a Learning Disability.

The Board noted that all contact that is made with Healthwatch Havering was logged, and whilst there may not be immediate investigations, the details of the complaint were kept should further concerns be raised.

The report set out a number of different actions and priorities including those established by the Health and Wellbeing Board.  Healthwatch Havering, from their perspective, had set out the priorities in the following order:

·         The CQC inspection of Queens Hospital (Priority 7: Reducing avoidable hospital admissions).

·         Frail and Elderly Members of our community (Priority 5: Better integrated care for the ‘frail elderly’ population and Priority 1 Early help for vulnerable people).

·         The Better Care Fund (Priority 8: Improving the quality of services to ensure that patient experience and long-term health outcomes are the best they can be).

·         The Care of Children in our Community (Priority 6: Better integrated care for vulnerable children).

·         Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (Supports the development of all the 8 priorities).

·         Dementia Strategy (Priority 2: Improved identification and support for people with dementia).

·         Children and Families Bill (Priority 1: Early help for vulnerable people).

·         Specialist and Cardiovascular Services (Priority 3: Earlier detection of cancer)

·         Childhood Obesity (Priority 4: Tackling obesity).

Healthwatch Havering felt that the joint working with the Board and its partners had been carried out effectively and had achieved a lot in the last year.

The Board agreed that further work needed to be done to the JSNA.  It was the document that fed into the community, but needed to be more detailed to achieve real outcomes.  It was agreed that the work being done by other boroughs should be researched to get some best practice and to be aware of emerging issues.  The JSNA needed to be a more practical document.

The Board felt that Healthwatch Havering were doing a good job and that its members should be very proud of their excellent work.