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Shaping Local HealthWatch

Posted 11 months ago by Paula

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Paula said 11 months ago

We now understand the LINks will evolve in to 'Local Healthwatch' by October 2012. The K&C LINk is keen to start preparing now for this transition so as to build on our strong foundation and work in partnership with stakeholders to map new functions in relation to advocacy and information.
We would welcome your thoughts on our forum or blog on how you would like to see Local HealthWatch develop in K&C. We will keep you updated on our developments and please do get involved to help shape your Local HealthWatch.
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Paula said 11 months ago

For anyone new to LINks or finding it difficult to keep track of the Health and Social Care Bill, it is proposed that:
Local HealthWatch will be created by developing the role of existing LINks (Local Involvement Networks).
Local HealthWatch will:
Ensure that the views and feedback from people who use services, carers and members of the public are integral to local commissioning
Provide advocacy and support to people and help them to make choices about services
Provide intelligence for HealthWatch England about the quality of providers

What do you think about this?
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Paula said 11 months ago

[url=http://www.rbkclink.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/NHSChangesEventReport090511Final.pdf]'NHS Changes' page[/url]We have received two questions by email (22/06/11):
1) Will health watch have advocacy powers or will they commission advocacy?
2) What are your views on high level clinicians being proposed to be involved in GP commissioning, as there was a sense this would further remove commissioning away from the communities?

Answers:
1) Further to our white paper response and NHS Future Forum submission, K&C LINk supports the principle of personalisation and recognising the strong established advocacy sector in the borough. During 2011/12, we will work with the key providers to map local services and identify the next steps in creating an inclusive Local HealthWatch structure that can signpost people to trained and qualified advocates for health and social care.
2) The K&C LINk understands that secondary care professionals and expert clinicians can now support the GPs in commissioning locally. We do not have an official LINk view on this topic as yet so I pass this to our Chair for comment.
However, the LINk recognises the need and value of a seamless transition from secondary to primary care/the community for local residents. We do support an integrated model of health and social care and appreciate that our Consortium are general practitioners and can benefit from the expertise clinicians in commissioning some services. We are currently working with the consortium to establish a PPE framework, including lay representation on the group. Our recommendations can be found on our 'NHS Changes' page.
I will post our Chair's response to this question in the coming days.
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Paula said 10 months ago

Response from K&C LINk Chair:

This is an interesting question and we would like to hear the views of other people. Some of our members have said that it will be useful to have the input of expert clinicians into commissioning decisions as well as the knowledge and local expertise of GPs. At present K&C LINk is working to ensure that there public and patient involvement in commissioning at all levels of the new structures. We will let you know more about this soon.
Christine Vigars
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Paula said 9 months ago

Read about HealthWatch on the Care Quality Commission website:

http://cqc.org.uk/aboutcqc/whatwedo/improvinghealthandsocialcare/healthwatch.cfm

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