Healthwatch City of London January 2023 Newsletter
Chat from the Chair
Welcome to our January newsletter, I hope that you had a good festive season, and a belated Happy New Year to you all.
We are looking forward to another productive year here at Healthwatch City of London, we’ve lots of events planned to ensure that your voice is heard by those who provide our Health and Social Care. We are interested in hearing who you would like to hear from so please let us know if there is something that you’d like to hear about, learn more about or are worried about by emailing info@healthwatchcityoflondon.org.uk
Join our team! We are looking for two people to join our small team, firstly, following Rachel Cleave’s promotion we are looking for a new engagement and communications officer to increase our ability to connect with you and we have developed a new role, a volunteer and project officer. Both are part time roles which offer exciting opportunities to help deliver our objectives as an organisation and to ensure that we represent you. Interested in joining the team? See below for more details.
We’ve kicked off the year with one of our Patient Panels this time with the London Ambulance Service. A fascinating insight into how urgent care and emergency response works across London. This session formed part of a project we are undertaking to feed back your views to help shape their five-year strategy for 2023-28. You can read more about this and how to get involved further down the newsletter.
At the end of February we’ll be holding our first Public Board meeting of the year, joined by colleagues from Barts Health who will telling us about Virtual Wards and Cancer Screening and Diagnostics. For more details how to join us read below.
Finally, we said good bye to Salma Khatun just before Christmas. Salma has been with us for almost two years and some of you will have met her as she supported our volunteers and events. Salma is taking a break and is fortunate enough to be able to go on pilgrimage. We are sorry to see her go but really delighted that she has been able to take the opportunity for such an exciting adventure. We would like to thank her for all her work and wish her good luck for the future.
In the meantime, I look forward to seeing you at one of our upcoming events, please do join us, your voice counts and without your input we can’t make a difference on your behalf.
Take care in this cold weather!
Gail
Gail Beer, Chair, Healthwatch City of London
Join our team
We are looking for two dedicated people who are passionate about making sure the patient voice is at the heart of Health and Social Care decision making.
Communications and engagement officer
This 3 day a week role if for an enthusiastic and experienced communications and engagement officer to make sure that the patient voice is at the heart of Health and Social Care decision making, to drive engagement with the local community and to ensure our communications are visible across our website, social media and print. You’ll also represent the organisation at network meetings across all of the various Health and Social Care providers, charity partners and patient groups across North East London.
Read more about the role and how to apply in the job description below.
Volunteer and Project Officer
This 2 day a week role is for an experienced volunteer and project manager to recruit and manage a volunteer team, and to identify and manage relevant and exciting projects that put the patient voice at the heart of Health and Social Care decision making and deliver on the objectives of our charity.
Read more about the role and how to apply in the job description below
If you have any questions or would like to discuss the roles in more detail, please contact our General Manager, Rachel Cleave on rachel@healthwatchcityoflondon.org.uk
London Ambulance Service – help shape their strategy
Last week we held our Patient Panel with the London Ambulance Service, it was a very interesting session, for instance did you know that the LAS run 3 out of the 5 NHS 111 services in London, accounting for 70% of the calls? They offer a hear and treat service that reduces the need for ambulance admissions to hospital and last year they say over 1 million patients.
There is still time to have your say on their organisational strategy for 2023 – 28. You can either complete our survey https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/ambulance2023/. Or simply email us at info@healthwatchcityoflondon.org.uk and tell us your thoughts on the following:
- What is LAS getting right?
- How can LAS improve emergency care?
- How can LAS enhance urgent care?
- How should LAS work with other parts of the healthcare system to improve care?
- How can LAS do more to contribute to life in London
Healthwatch City of London Board meeting in Public
Healthwatch City of London’s next Board meeting in Public is being held on Thursday 23rd February between 2pm – 3.30pm, please do join us. We’ll be joined by the director of Cancer Nursing for Screening and Diagnostics. Hear all about virtual wards which are being used by the cardiology department at Barts Hospital. We are also interested in your experiences of waiting for diagnostic tests and if you or a loved one or someone you care for has made use of the virtual ward service.
We are holding the meeting over Zoom, here are the joining details:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84549863753?pwd=eHltLzdxRy9obXBVQTJ4MVdyUC9IUT09
Meeting ID: 845 4986 3753
Passcode: 058086
If you’d like to raise any issues or submit a question prior to the meeting, please email info@healthwatchcityoflondon.org.uk
Living a healthy life in Hackney and the City of London
City and Hackney’s Public Health team are reviewing the health needs and priorities of local residents related to health behaviours, such as dietary and smoking behaviours. We would like to gather feedback from residents to make sure we understand how best to support residents to take steps to be as healthy as possible in the City of London and Hackney.
Feedback will be reviewed and considered as part of our healthy weight and smoking needs assessment, which will include a set of recommendations for local action that can improve diets, physical activity and smoking rates across the City and Hackney.
You will receive a £30 Love2Shop digital voucher for your participation.
Living a healthy life in Hackney and the City of London (google.com)
North East London Maternity Choice survey
If you are currently pregnant, help improve services in future by filling out the Maternity Choice survey. This will help the NHS understand the choices you made for your maternity care and what they can do differently.
Complete the survey here Maternity choice engagement (smartsurvey.co.uk)
City and Hackney Health Inequalities summit
On 11th January we attended the City and Hackney Health Inequalities summit at St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney. The event hosted by NHS North East London was attended by clinicians, charity partners, Neighbourhood representatives, GP’s, representatives from the City of London Corporation and City and Hackney’s Healthwatch teams.
The forum highlighted the work, projects and services being offered across City and Hackney. A number of case studies were presented, City & Hackney’s CoRe (Covid Rehabilitation) services, which supports those who have Long Covid, Together Better a project across GP surgeries to support patients with groups such as walking groups, art workshops and exercise classes and the Get Together Men’s Group, a group for socially isolated men to get together, share opinions and undertake various activities.
There was a real sense of community and determination from attendees, who all strive to deliver services for the benefit of patients across City and Hackney. There was one topic that arose in every presentation though, funding!
You can read more about these case studies and others here.
Public Consultations from the City of London Corporation
We don’t usually advertise public consultations, but both of these have a direct impact on health, and we will be giving our views in relation to health.
Healthy Neighbourhood
The City of London Corporation and Islington Council are working in partnership on the long-term future of Bunhill, Barbican and Golden Lane areas. They would like your views on air quality, traffic, local streets and public streets. The survey is early engagement to develop a plan, with further consultation planned when individual projects are developed. Take part by visiting www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/healthyneighbourhood
Beech Street Zero Emission Scheme
Between March 2020 and September 2021, the City of London Corporation ran a traffic experiment that restricted polluting traffic from using Beech Street as a ‘through route’ whilst still allowing access for zero emission vehicles. CoL are now consulting on making similar permanent measures to improve air quality. Take part in the consultation visit www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/beech-street
If you need any of this information in another language, reading format such as braille, large print or audio please email publicrealm@islington.gov.uk or write to them at Public Realm, 1 Cottage Road London, N7 8TP.
Are you or anyone you know experiencing Long COVID symptoms?
You are invited to complete the survey below which will only take a few minutes to complete. Your responses will provide the team with valuable information to help understand where there is a need for further support and plan better health services for all residents living in the boroughs of City & Hackney. As a token of thanks, you will be entered into a prize draw for the chance to win a £50, £25 or £10 store voucher if you complete the survey.
If you require support to complete the survey, please email or call on 0207 683 4336 for a call-back.
Click the link to complete the survey now - Long Covid - Your experiences and barriers (smartsurvey.co.uk)
If you have any questions regarding the survey, please do not hesitate to get in touch: HUH-tr.candhcore@nhs.net
City of London Health Walks
Please see below the schedule of the Health Walks organised by Age UK City of London.
City Advice at the Golden Lane Community Centre
City Advice are offering outreach session between Jan – March 2023 at the Golden Lane Community Centre.
Please see attached the schedule.
Long-term conditions survey
If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with a long-term health condition and needs ongoing help to control it using medicine or therapies, share your experiences and complete this short survey.
Do you have a long term health condition and live in north east London? Survey (surveymonkey.co.uk)
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 us
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, 20 Little Somerset Street, London E1 8AH
