News and reports

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.

Healthwatch Sandwell will champion the interests of people who use health and social care services and ensure that they have an opportunity to speak out about their concerns and health and social care priorities.

Residents of Sandwell regularly express frustrations with obtaining G.P. Surgery appointments and there are not enough G.P. appointments available to meet daily demand.

We received 59 survey responses, 27 participants took part in focus groups, and we conducted semi-structured interviews. Participants in the focus group were able to complete the survey as well if they chose to. Survey respondents were asked a series of demographic questions but were free to choose not to answer those questions.

NHS GPs in England can be paid to undertake annual health checks for people registered with them who have learning disabilities and meet the eligibility criteria. They must be aged 14 and over and on the practice learning disability health checks register. People with autism without a learning disability are not included.

We expect effective, high-quality support to manage existing conditions and help us live healthy lives and people with learning disabilities and or autism should expect no less and receive the same service as everyone else. People with a learning disability generally have poorer outcomes in life, experience inequalities in access to healthcare and have significantly lower life expectancy (Care Quality Commission, CQC, 2016).