News and reports

Healthwatch Sandwell have a legal power (Health and Social Care Act 2012) for Authorised Representatives to visit health and social care services and see them in action. This power to Enter and View services offers a way for Healthwatch to meet some of their statutory functions and allows them to identify what is working well with services and where they could be improved.

Covid-19 and roll out of the vaccination programmes has impacted nationally on delivery of primary care services. Service changes have included minimisation of face-to-face patient engagement which effectively supported implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan 2019 “digital first”1 agenda for primary care. Sandwell is ranked as the 12th most deprived local authority area nationally for indices of multiple deprivation with a lower-than-average life expectancy and higher than average health inequalities and mortality rate in under 75-year olds.
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Digital skills levels, digital poverty, and an increasing ethnically diverse population
with some language barriers present challenges with access and receipt of
health and care which services need to consider.

Healthwatch Sandwell (HWS) frequently hear from Sandwell residents about frustrations with trying to access and obtain appointments at their G.P. practices, especially regarding phone queueing systems, and public perception that premises are no longer open for face-to-face services.
The HWS project aimed to:
• explore the issues for patients with access to G.P. practice
appointments
• gauge public awareness and uptake of other primary care service
options
• gather a picture on the operation of primary care services in
Sandwell.

Healthwatch Sandwell is your independent consumer champion for health and social care services in Sandwell. Our job is to champion the consumer interests of those using the services and give local people an opportunity to speak out about their concerns. We listen to views, concerns, and compliments about services to help shape and improve them so that people are accessing the most quality and appropriate care.

The purpose of the visit was to observe the environment and explore first-hand with customers their experiences of using Duggals Chemist.
HWS wanted to find out customers’ experiences of the pharmacy service, this included why they visit the pharmacy and what support they get from the pharmacy including and how they are treated.

Communication needs due to a disability, sensory loss or an impairment are covered under the Equality Act 2020 and the NHS Accessible Information Standard (2016) which states that NHS funded health and social care providers must meet the information and communication needs of people who access services. Communication should be undertaken in ways that meet identified needs and information should be provided in formats that are clear and easy to understand.

At first glance this case study and description of events sound relatively straight forward that
is, a person with a progressive degenerative neurological disease > receives support at home >
receives care in hospital > moves to a respite at care home > moves to a more suitable care
home, however, this person’s experience has highlighted many obstacles within the process
and has been fraught with difficulties.

This report will provide an overview of the services at Asda Pharmacy and will provide
customer experience feedback.

Residents of Sandwell regularly express frustrations with accessing GP Surgery
appointments.

Healthwatch Sandwell is your independent consumer champion for health and social care services in Sandwell. Our job is to champion the consumer interests of those using the services and give local people an opportunity to speak out about their concerns. We listen to views, concerns, and compliments about services to help shape and improve them so that people are accessing the most quality and appropriate care.

Healthwatch Sandwell are aware the challenges people face regarding getting GP appointments, especially during the pandemic. Our report on The Patient Experience of Accessing Primary Care Services will follow shortly.

We would like to capture what surgeries are doing to improve the patient experience as this will help:

• Inform patients about improvements the surgeries are making

• Build relationships with Practice Managers and Patient Participation Groups (PPG)

• Promote PPGs

HWS engaged with Sandwell residents who were ‘patients in waiting’ for hospital treatment to hear about their experiences and any impacts of Covid-19 on their hospital treatment pathways.