View this email in your browser

January / February 2018 Newsletter

Welcome to the latest edition of the Healthwatch Bucks Newsletter. As well as giving you a quick round up of what we’ve been doing recently to make a difference to the way health and social care is being delivered, we’re also putting the spotlight on health and social care planning for Buckinghamshire.

In the first of a series of articles, we’ll be explaining what plans are in place for Bucks, what these plans mean for you and how you can get involved.

News

Come and hear what we have planned

Our quarterly Healthwatch Bucks Board Meeting in public takes place on Wednesday 7 March, 2018. We would be delighted to see you there, hear your views and answer any questions. All we ask is that you email any questions in advance.

Read more

Dentistry Follow-up - room for improvement

In our “Dentistry Mystery Shopping” report in 2016 we recommended to dentists that they provide accurate information on NHS Choices regarding their opening times and NHS patient acceptance. When we checked late last year however, we found there was even less information available. Read what we’ve been doing since to ensure our recommendations are achieved.

Read more

Dads and Maternity Follow-up - policy change!

Since our report on Dads and Maternity: Partner Experience, Bucks Healthcare Trust have worked hard to improve the way partners are involved before, during and after birth. Read about all the actions they’ve taken including a new policy change!

Read more

Chiltern House Medical Centre - rated Good!

You may remember in September, in response to patient concern we conducted an Enter & View visit to find out how the practice was being run. In December, we compiled a report, which included recommendations.

Since then, we’re delighted to say that Chiltern House Medical Centre has just been rated as ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission. What’s more, our visit was mentioned in the CQC Report. Congratulations Chiltern House!

Read more

Articles

Real Stories - valuing dignity

Real people are at the heart of our ‘Real Stories’ campaign. Our stories are about local people’s experiences of health and social care services - from those receiving the care to those helping to deliver it. This issue, Jenny one of our volunteers for our work on Dignity In Care, talks about what volunteering means to her.

Read More

Patient Participation Groups (PPG) - success stories

Over the past 2 years we’ve worked hard to support Patient Participation Groups in GP practices. So we thought it was about time we showcased some of the amazing work that PPGs are doing. We kickstart our PPG success stories with the PPG at John Hampden Surgery who told us about their Practice/Patient Contract.

Read More

Buckinghamshire’s Integrated Care System (ICS)

Last year Buckinghamshire was selected to be one of the first eight areas in the country to set up an Integrated Care System. The idea behind this move is for health and social care to provide more joined up services. Here we explain what this means to you and how your voice counts.

Read more

Other news

Have you been affected by cancer?

NHS Aylesbury Vale and NHS Chiltern Clinical Commissioning Groups are working with Macmillan Cancer Support to invite people with experience of cancer to give their views in a new online survey. If you would like to take part and help ensure the best possible care and support for others, complete this online survey now.

Read more

Can you help shape diabetes services in Bucks?

NHS Aylesbury Vale CCG & NHS Chiltern CCG have set up a Diabetes Reference Group to help shape and deliver diabetes services across Bucks. The CCGs are now looking to recruit volunteer patient voice representatives to join the Group to provide practical insight, connectivity and strategic thinking.

Read more

And finally...

New Communications & Engagement Lead

And finally we’d like to welcome Marie-Louise who has recently joined Healthwatch Bucks to support our communications.

Marie-Louise said “My role is to help make sure your voices are heard and acted upon by health and social care decision makers. So please come and talk to us about your experiences of health and social care services. There are plenty of ways you can reach us: by phone, email, online, our feedback forms and of course, face-to-face. We look forward to hearing from you!

In our next issue

You’ll read about our latest project to support PPGs and of course we’ll showcase another PPG success story. We’ll also share what local people think of the new Community Hubs that have been set up around Bucks; and we’ll report on our recent Enter & View visit at Stoke Mandeville hospital pharmacy. All this plus much, much more.

Don’t forget to share this newsletter!

Volunteer with us

We have a number of varied roles for volunteers. You can view all the latest roles on our website.

Tell us about your experience

Your feedback is vital in helping us to understand how services are performing. Your stories and experiences feed into our strategy, guiding us to investigate issues within your health and social care services, and help us to shape services better so that they work for you.