Frequently asked questions about Healthwatch
What is Healthwatch? Who/what is Trafford Healthwatch?
Healthwatch Trafford is the independent ‘consumer champion’ for everyone that uses local health and social care services.
This means listening to and representing the views of patients, carers and all those using these services, ensuring that their opinions and feedback are taken into account when decisions are made.
This includes consultation with children and young people on their health and social care services.
2. What does Healthwatch Trafford do?
Healthwatch Trafford works on a number of levels.
We provide and information and signposting service to help people find the information or the contacts they require to access health and social care services. We can be contacted by telephone, email, through our website, on social media, in person or by post. In addition to this, we produce leaflets and newsletters that provide information on local services and news of developments that affect services locally.
We collect patient experiences and concerns to build a picture of how services are working and where they can be improved. With the evidence of these experiences, we can go to the providers themselves or the commissioners and make changes to improve the services for everyone.
We have a seat on the Trafford Health and Wellbeing board as well as on the board of Trafford CCG and are represented on committees and in liason meetings with all the major providers and commissioners in Trafford, giving us a powerful voice. This allows us to make the patients voice heard whenever any major decicions are made in the area.
We can also enter and view any premises where publicly funded health or social care is provided to people in Trafford (with the exception of children’s social services which are covered by Ofsted).
3. How are you funded?
All local Healthwatch in England are funded by a grant from the Government, with local authorities acting as commissioners. We are also able to do specially commissioned work for other organisations.
4. Who runs Healthwatch locally? Are you run by Trafford General or Trafford Council? How do you operate and support yourselves financially?
Healthwatch Trafford is an independent company limited by guarantee operating on a not-for-profit basis. Whilst funding comes via the local authority (from the government) and we are answerable to them in terms or our performance, we are a legally separate entity and have a board structure.
5. How do I know you are really independent?
We have a board of directors that were recruited independently to run Healthwatch without representation from the local authority. We are a company in our own right and are fully transparent in our dealings with the local authority.
6. Are you a private company?
Yes, we are a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. We do not have shareholders and are fully independent.
7. Why should I contact you instead of PALS or the hospital?
PALS (Patient Advice and Liaison Service) are the NHS service that you can go to for information or complaints about your treatment.
They are service specific and they are almost like the ‘customer service’ part of the organisation. Whilst we would often recommend going to them with complaints first, we recognise that they are not independent of the service you may wish to raise a complaint or concern about, whereas Healthwatch Trafford are.
We can also help if your complaint is about the PALS service itself.
8. Why have I not heard about Healthwatch before? Will my doctor have your information?
Healthwatch Trafford has only existed since April 2013 and we have a fairly limited budget, allowing little for promotion. Despite this we have been hard at work spreading the word and letting those most likely to come into contact with people that could use our services know.
All GPs in Trafford have been made aware of us and have our details, with many carrying our leaflets. It is up to each private practice whether they pass on our details to its patients or not.
9. If you are volunteers where do you get your information from and why will you be able to help me?
Volunteers receive information from a number of sources, depending on their volunteer role. They may be a member of a committee, attend regular meetings, receive regular email updates, given specific training, attend public events and have their own backgrounds with areas of expertise.
They are supported by the Healthwatch Staff and are able to find out information when they don’t have it immediately available.
Their knowledge and access to the whole Healthwatch structure makes them well placed to give information and signposting as well as to listen to and record concerns and experiences of services.
They can advise you of what services are available to help you and how to go about contacting them and can give out relevant literature, as well as letting you know about developments in Health and Social Care in Trafford.
10. Shouldn’t the money be spent on patient care?
The entire network of Healthwatch (including Healthwatch England) costs just 14p for every £10,000 spent on the NHS. We feel this is a small amount to pay to ensure services are fit for those that use them.
There is a strong argument (part of the reason Healthwatch organisations were created) that many major problems such as the Mid-Staffordshire hospital scandal would have been spotted much sooner if there was a coordinated ability to hear peoples experiences, spot patterns of problems and act on information gathered.
In addition to this, the health and social care act makes it law that local healthwatch exist.
11. What do you do with the information received? (i.e. would it be identity protected/confidential etc.)
Unless you have specifically given us permission to use your details, we anonymise all our information when dealing with services – we never give out personal information without you telling us to.
We collect experiences, comments, concerns and complaints and use the data to figure out what is being done well and where things need to improve. Using this evidence we can then work with the service providers or commissioners (or other parties where appropriate, such as the Care Quality Commission) to identify problems and put them right or see where good practice can be shared, making services better for those that use them.
12. How do you go about making local services listen to you? Can you really make a difference?
Healthwatch Trafford is here to scrutinise the quality of local services and hold them to account. We are a powerful voice because we have the strength of the law and the national influence of Healthwatch England behind us.
We can contact health and social care commissioners and providers to request information and expect a response within 20 working days by law. Service providers must have regard to our views, reports and recommendations. They must respond explaining what action they will take, or why they are not taking action.
We can enter and view any premises where publically funded health or social care is provided to people in Trafford (with the exception of children’s social care services which are covered by Ofsted).
We can escalate matters to the Trafford Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee when we feel it necessary to do so. The Committee must acknowledge receipt of our concerns and keep us informed of any action it takes.
We represent the voice of patients and the public on the Trafford Health &Wellbeing Board. This will mean that the views and experiences of local people will be taken into account when decisions are made about what services are needed are our borough. Through this position, we will contribute to the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA), which is an assessment of the current and future health and wellbeing needs of people in Trafford.
In addition to this we have the support of Healthwatch England, who can liaise with the Department of Health, Care Quality Commission and NHS England on a national level.
13. What services does Healthwatch Trafford Cover?
Healthwatch Trafford covers all health and social care services that are commissioned by the NHS and local authorities in the area. Children’s social services are excluded as this function is carried out by Ofsted. Healthwatch Trafford also covers independent providers of publicly funded services.
14. Can you help me with my complaint?
We can provide information on how to make a complaint and help you find the right advocacy service if you require it. We can explain the process and help you understand how complaints are handled. We do not act as advocates and do not process your complaint ourselves, however we do encourage people to share their complaints with us so we can use the information to help us identify and address problems in the health and social care services in the area.
