Healthwatch City of London November Newsletter
Chat from the Chair
It’s been another busy month for the team here at Healthwatch City of London. Our big news is the impending move to a permanent home in the City. The Portsoken Community Centre opened its doors last Friday with an official opening. There was a lively welcoming atmosphere during the afternoon, and it was fantastic to meet some of our fellow charity partners from City Connections, City Advice, Positive East and the City of London Corporation, but more importantly it was great to meet so many members of the community. We hope you will come and see us there very soon.
It was a real privilege to host a webinar with the East London Cardiovascular Disease Prevention team (ELoPE) a Barts Heart Centre programme that aims to improve cardiovascular health across east London. The webinar was well attended and provoked some lively debate. We plan for this to be the start of a long term relationship that will help us to help you. Thank you to the team for coming to talk to us.
In other news we continue to work with the Neaman Practice to support them to provide a better patient experience for you, in particular we are aware of your frustrations about getting through on the phone, the practice shares these frustrations and are working hard to resolve these issues; for further information please see the item below.
We are delighted that we’ll be joined by Tracey Fletcher, Chief Executive of Homerton University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Professor Charles Knight OBE, Chief Executive, St Bartholomew’s Hospital, part of Barts Health at our Annual Public Meeting. Tracey and Charles will be talking about patient engagement in particular how your voice will be heard as the new Integrated Care Partnership develops. In addition, they will tell us how their Trusts are tackling waiting lists. There will be plenty of time for you to ask the questions you want answering. More details of how to join us are below.
Finally, it’s really great to be able to share with you some news about us. Last week was Healthwatch Week, a conference run by Healthwatch England which saw over 600 staff, volunteers and stakeholders get together online to debate, share, and learn. The conference concluded with the awards ceremony, where, I am pleased to say, HWCoL won the ‘Working with your integrated care system’ award for our work on the ‘Voices of disabled residents and COVID 19’ with our neighbouring North East London Healthwatch. You can read more about this below.
As the pandemic continues and as the colder temperatures hit, many are anxious about the continued effect of the Covid 19 virus and how flu will impact upon us. It is important to continue to follow the advice and guidance of experts as well as getting vaccinated. To find out more visit www.nhs.uk/wintervaccinations or the CCG website at https://northeastlondonccg.nhs.uk/
Gail
News from the Neaman Practice
We continue to work closely with the Neaman Practice, and we held our regular quarterly meeting with them last week to discuss the improvements they are making. However, the telephone system remains problematic, and thank you to those who have been in touch to let us know.
The Practice is now using a cloud based telephone system which has enabled more access to telephone lines and you will now be able to leave a message should your call not be answered. We will be monitoring the situation with the Practice and will be supporting them in raising this issue with the North East London CCG should these changes not result in an improved service.
If you have had difficulties calling the Neaman Practice to book appointments or to speak to a GP, please let us know via our email info@healthwatchcityoflondon.org.uk The practice is keen to know about problems as they are often not aware if something has gone wrong with the telephone line. By letting either the Practice know, through their website or letting HWCoL know we can work together to make things better.
Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment survey
The Public Health Team at the City of London Corporation work to improve the health and wellbeing of both the resident population of the City of London and more than 400,000 people working in the Square Mile.
They are currently carrying out a Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment (PNA) which will look at health needs in the City of London, the level and accessibility of pharmacy services and how these will be maintained and developed in the future.
The City of London would like to know what you think of pharmacy services in the City of London to help them develop services in the future. Everybody’s views are important to ensure the pharmacy services in the City of London meet your needs.
The survey will take between 3-20 minutes depending on your answers. All responses are confidential.
The information you give will enable them to:
- check whether or not their services are equally accessible to everyone who is entitled to them;
- identify and address any barriers to accessing (information about) their services;
- continually improve the services they deliver.
You can access the survey by clicking on this link
The survey closes on Friday 17th December.
Healthwatch City of London wins award for work on ‘Disabled residents and the impact of Covid 19’
Healthwatch City of London have won a national award for joining forces with its neighboring Healthwatch colleagues* to provide fast, regular, and comprehensive insight about people’s experiences of care and share with local service leaders.
Working with our local Healthwatch partners we jointly won the ‘Working with your integrated care system’ category in the Healthwatch Awards 2021.
We were one of only a handful of local Healthwatch to win an award out of a total of 152 across England.
The project ‘Voices of disabled residents and COVID 19’ was a survey we carried out earlier in the year, of our residents who are living with a disability asking them to let us know how COVID 19 had impacted on their lives. The survey explored several areas including access to services, access to information and the vaccination. It was carried out across North East London.
From the survey we have learned that 53% of respondents experienced disruption to their health and/or social care.
Those most affected by this had a severe disability (unable to leave home or in need of personal care) those with learning disabilities and those with chronic pain.
Most respondents had experienced online/web-based appointments, although these work well for the majority, those with sensory impairments or a language barrier struggle.
You can read the full results from the survey by clicking on the pink box below.
* Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham, Healthwatch Hackney, Healthwatch Havering, Healthwatch Newham, Healthwatch Redbridge, Healthwatch Tower Hamlets and Healthwatch Waltham Forest
HWCoL upcoming webinars and Public Meetings
Healthwatch City of London have a programme of webinars booked for your interest and information over the next few months. We hope to announce two more webinars next week one around Long Covid the other on the new Shoreditch Park and City Neighbourhood forum and how it will work with the Primary Care Network, so keep an eye out for the dates and further information in next week’s bulletin.
The webinars are run alongside our regular events. Please see the details and how to join below.
Healthwatch City of London Annual Public Meeting
Friday 10th December 3pm – 5pm
Our Annual Public Meeting will be held on Friday 10th December, our key speakers will be Tracey Fletcher, Chief Executive of Homerton University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Professor Charles Knight OBE, Chief Executive, St Bartholomew’s Hospital part of Barts Health. Tracey and Charles will be talking about patient engagement and how your voice will be heard during the reconfiguration of services and the development of the Integrated Care Partnership, In addition they will tell us how their Trusts are tackling waiting lists. They will take questions from attendees.
You can submit a question for the panel and register here or you can just join via zoom by using the following details: Meeting ID: 958 6276 6023 Passcode: 341057
Dr David Collier, William Harvey Research Institute Webinar
Thursday 20th January 6pm – 7pm
Dr David Collier, Joint Clinical Director at the William Harvey Research Institute will be joining us on Thursday 20th January to talk about the William Harvey Research Institute, how it links with Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, and the current projects being undertaken by the research team.
You can submit a question for Dr Collier and register here
Healthwatch City of London events
See below for the next scheduled dates for our regular ‘Listening to City Carers’ events and our Mental Health and Wellbeing focus groups.
As a result of listening to you, we have enabled a carer to receive their COVID vaccination in their home, enabled another resident to access the ELFT mental health team, given a voice for carers in the retendering process by the Corporation of London of their home care contract.
Listening to City Carers
Overview: An opportunity for Carer’s to provide feedback on their experience of Health and Social Care.
Date: Friday 3rd December
Time: 2pm – 3pm
Link to join: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81897762127?pwd=ZUFsdVMxS2lETmczZy8rdHlDWUl4Zz09
Meeting ID: 818 9776 2127 Passcode: 575751
Christmas activities across the City *new event added*
Maggie’s Christmas Fair
Maggie’s Centres are built in the grounds of specialist NHS cancer hospitals and offer social, emotional and practical help to people with cancer and their loved ones. They have 24 centres throughout the UK and one centre a few minutes’ walk from the Barbican at St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
Join Maggie’s charity Designer and Maker Christmas Fair for designer/handcrafted shopping, a free mince pie and mulled wine. There will be gifts, jewellery, homeware, ceramics, leather and more!
Thursday 2nd (5pm-8pm) & Friday 3rd (10am-6pm) December 2021
See the attached flyer below for further details
MRS Independent living event Weds 1st December
Golden Lane Community Centre 2.15 – 3.45pm
See image below
Aldgate in Winter lantern parade and Christmas market on Friday 3rd December
Please see the flyer below:
Barts Virtual Festival of Carols 8th December 5:45pm
Details can be found by clicking on the following link:
Join this year's virtual festival of carols | Our news - Barts Health NHS Trust
Latest Covid-19 statistics for the City of London
The joint City and Hackney Public Health Intelligence Team produce regular statistics on Covid-19 levels and vaccination uptake data in the City. The site is updated regularly and accessible at https://hackney.gov.uk/coronavirus-data
Keep up to date with the latest advice
HWCoL are constantly updating our advice and information pages. Please make sure you visit them regularly. https://www.healthwatchcityoflondon.org.uk/advice-and-information
Get in touch with Healthwatch City of London
Visit our website for more information, news and events, have your say about your care, and spread the word about Healthwatch City of London. www.healthwatchcityoflondon.org.uk email: info@healthwatchcityoflondon.org.uk Tel: 020 3745 9563 Facebook: facebook.com/CoLHealthwatch Twitter: @HealthwatchCoL
Portsoken Health and Community Centre, 14-16 Little Somerset Street, London E1 8AH
