View this email in your browser

Newsletter - April 2023

Welcome to our April newsletter

This month our newsletter includes:

Directors Update
Latest news and updates
Job Opportunities
Healthwatch - What we have heard about health and care services in East Sussex
Our volunteer activity
Upcoming Events

Directors Update

At the beginning of April 2023, Healthwatch reached a significant milestone – 10 years of putting people’s voices at the heart of health and social care.

The health and social care landscape has changed a lot in ten years, but thanks to you for taking the time to share your story with us we’ve been able to champion your voice to help improve health and care over the last decade.

Whether you spoke to us at an event, over the phone, or left a comment online – it mattered. Because of you, we’ve raised awareness of some of the big issues, and championed change where it’s needed over the last ten years.

We will be celebrating all that we’ve achieved together for the people in our community at our Annual Event on July 13th 2023 and we would love to see you there. More information is to come on this so keep an eye on our website for more details.

We want to continue to hear your stories and experiences over the next ten years, and we have a range of ways for you to share these with us.

You can leave a review of health and care services in East Sussex each and every time you use them via our Feedback Centre and our Information and Signposting service helps people to access the right health or social care service or organisation for their needs and enables people to share their experience, leave feedback or make a complaint.

Thank you again for sharing your experiences with us.

Veronica Kirwan
Executive Director
East Sussex Community Voice delivering Healthwatch in East Sussex

Latest news and updates

Healthwatch Poll: Leaving feedback or making complaints to health and care services

Unfortunately, due to an error with the link in our last newsletter we were unable to run our March poll.

Our apologies for any confusion this caused. We still want to hear about your experiences of leaving feedback with or making complaints to health and care services in the last 12 months.

Please share your experience with us via our one question poll.

We'll share the results in our next newsletter.

Click here to take our poll!

Save the Date: Healthwatch East Sussex Annual Event 2023

On Thursday 13th July, we will be holding our 2023 Annual Event at The View Hotel in Eastbourne.

The event is open to the public, community groups and local organisations, so do come along and contribute your views and experiences to the discussions.

This will be a chance to:

celebrate our activity from the last 12 months
set out our plans for 2023-24,
hear from key decision-makers about the future of health and care
discuss key themes with staff and volunteers from a range of local organisations

Please add the date to your diary now, more information on the programme and booking details will be coming soon.

Bank Holidays in May: Prescription Reminder and Pharmacy Opening Times

There are three bank holidays coming up in May, so don’t forget to order any repeat medications in good time, as GP practices may be closed and pharmacy opening times are likely to change.

NHS England have also shared some information on opening hours to help you find an open pharmacy near you over the Bank Holidays. You can access the information here or by clicking the link below.

Sussex Pharmacy Opening Times

Remember - it is a good idea to contact the pharmacy before attending to make sure they have what you need.

Changes to NHS prescription charges

As of April 1^st 2023, the price of an NHS prescription has increased.

The increase taking effect from 1 April 2023, means:

A single prescription charge will be £9.65 (up from £9.35)
A 3-month prescription prepayment certificate (PPC) will be £31.25 (up from £30.25)
A 12-month PPC will be £111.60 (up from £108.10)
The new, 12-month hormone replacement therapy (HRT) PPC coming in from 1 April will be £19.30
Wigs and fabric supports will also increase by 3.2%.

Further Information

Do you #KnowTheHigh5 symptoms of bowel cancer?

Someone dies of bowel cancer every 30 minutes in the UK. It’s the second biggest cancer killer, but it shouldn’t be, because it’s treatable and curable.

Most people with these symptoms won’t have bowel cancer. Other health problems can cause similar symptoms. But if you experience one or more of these, or if things just don’t feel right, contact your GP straight away.

More information and resources are available from Bowel Cancer UK via the link below.

Bowel Cancer Awareness Month

MyType1 Diabetes – free online support for patients and healthcare professionals

MyType1 Diabetes is a free online resource with tailored support to help adults in England live well with their type 1 diabetes. It is recommended and funded by the NHS.

It can help patients:

understand more about type 1 diabetes
increase their confidence in managing their condition through e-learning
signpost to local services and a wide-range of content available in 10 different languages including Polish, Spanish and Urdu.

The programme is for people over the age of 18, with type 1 diabetes and can be accessed by individuals, families, carers, and healthcare professionals.

More information can be found below.

My Type1 Diabetes England

Adult Social Care system reform: next steps to put People at the Heart of Care

At the beginning of April, the Government published its updated plan for care and support reform, Next Steps to put People at the Heart of Care.

The plan details how £700 million will be spent to continue the transformation of the adult social care system in England, including investment in:

improved access to care and support
recognising skills for careers in care
driving digitisation and technology adoption
data and local authority oversight
support to enable people to remain independent at home
encouraging innovation and improvement
joining up services to support people and carers

More information can be found below.

Next Steps to put People at the Heart of Care

Healthwatch in Sussex shares public experiences of dentistry with Parliamentary inquiry

As part of its ongoing work to gather and share people’s experiences of local dentistry services, especially NHS dental provision, the three Sussex Healthwatch have continued our collaboration on this during 2023.

Healthwatch teams in West and East Sussex and Brighton and Hove have all been actively listening to your concerns and in January 2023 we submitted a joint response to the cross-party Health and Social Care Committee (Parliamentary) Inquiry into NHS dentistry. Our response was accepted by the Inquiry and published on 7 March.

For more information visit our website here or click the link below.

Spring Boosters for COVID-19: What you need to know

At the beginning of April the NHS kicked off its spring COVID-19 booster vaccination programme.

Around five million people are eligible, including over 75s, those with a weakened immune system and older adult care home residents.

Those living in care homes will be prioritised and began to receive vaccinations from Monday the 3rd April as roving NHS teams visit homes to offer protection.

Others eligible are able to book in on the National Booking Service or NHS App as of Wednesday 5th April.

Further details are available below.

Spring Boosters for COVID-19

Health and Wellbeing Tips from our staff:

With April being Stress awareness month we wanted to share some tips to help with taking care of your wellbeing and manage stress.

Our tips include:

Take time for yourself, whether it be a short mindful break, spending time in nature or working on a hobby.
Try talking about your feelings to friends and family or a health professional.
Small changes to look after your physical health. Staying active, eating well and getting enough sleep can make a big difference.
You can also visit the NHS website for 10 stress busters, for more ways to address stress.

More information from the NHS about stress including where to get help, can be found here.

Job Opportunities

East Sussex Community Voice – exciting new roles

Our host organisation, East Sussex Community Voice (ESCV) are recruiting for two new roles:

Grants Programme Officer

They are seeking an organised individual with excellent project management and stakeholder engagement skills.

The programme officer will support grant recipients to develop project plans and monitoring systems. Responsible for the full life cycle of grants programme, including financial management and programme design.

Deadline for applications: Midnight on 12th May 2023

For more information, please visit the ESCV website here, or click the link below.

Apply here

Volunteering Programme Officer

This innovative role will support volunteering within Healthwatch East Sussex and NHS Sussex, supporting opportunities for joint working and mutual learning.

They are seeking an organised individual with excellent project management and stakeholder engagement skills.

The programme officer will build on and further develop key volunteer roles, evaluating current provision and making recommendations on the development of the volunteer programmes.

Deadline for applications: Midnight on 14th May 2023

For more information, please visit the ESCV website here, or click the link below.

Apply here

Healthwatch - What we have heard about health and care services in East Sussex

Each month we feedback on the themes and issues people have contacted our Information and Enquiries Services about. We share this information with you and with health and care providers to help develop and improve the services.

During March 2023, we received 38 enquiries and we heard:

From people wanting to find about more about the support available for people with dementia and their carers.
About people concerned about having to wait too long for urgent treatment from Hospital Services.
Ongoing challenges with access to NHS dentistry.
From people dissatisfied with aspects of care from their GP services.

Read our March Feedback report here

We have also recently shared our quarterly insight report. Our quarterly report provides an overview of the 122 enquiries that we received during Q4, as well as the 22 reviews that have been left on our Feedback Centre.

You can read the full quarterly report below.

Read our full Quarter 4 report here

Contact us

To contact our Information and Signposting Service please call: 0333 101 4004 or
Email: enquiries@healthwatcheastsussex.co.uk

Advice for family, friends and carers to support people with dementia admitted to hospital.

Via our I nformation and Signposting service we have also recently been hearing about the experiences of people with dementia being admitted to hospital.

As well as providing enquirers with further support and signposting, we have also put together some advice and information on our website. This includes:

Tips for supporting a loved one with dementia
How hospitals can support people with dementia
How people with dementia experience hospital

Read the full article here

Our volunteer activity

We are always on the lookout for new volunteers.

Over the last 10 years our work has been made possible by our dedicated Healthwatch volunteers.

From observations in health and care settings, to conversations with healthcare staff, patients and the public, our volunteers have gathered feedback and insight through many engagement activities, including:

Enter and View activities
Patient Led Assessment of the Care Environment (PLACE) visits
Mystery shopping
Holding focus groups at local community groups
Having one-to-one conversations with residents
Sharing Healthwatch information at pop up stands
Promoting and sharing surveys
Supporting the annual Listening Tours

Since 2013, Healthwatch has achieved a lot thanks to its amazing volunteers such as:

Capturing and championing the experiences of residents of emergency and temporary accommodation, leading to beneficial changes for people living in Kendal Court, Newhaven.
Directly supporting the COVID-19 vaccination rollout through volunteering and information sharing, responding to enquiries, and researching people’s experiences to inform the vaccination programme.
Undertaking ‘lay reviews’ of GP websites and collaborating with NHS Sussex to deliver an investment programme to support improvements.
Highlighting people’s challenges in accessing NHS Dentistry to NHS commissioners and East Sussex Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, whilst also providing advice and information on how and where to get support.

We are looking forward to celebrating the 10-year Healthwatch anniversary and all our volunteers’ hard work at our Annual Event in July!

A Volunteer’ Experience of Volunteering for Healthwatch East Sussex: Hear from Paula:

"I have been a volunteer for Healthwatch for about 8 years now.

I volunteered because I wanted to play a part in the improvement of health and social care services within my local area. I was also attracted to volunteer because of the flexibility around volunteering – the ability to decide which projects to be involved in and the level of involvement.

I am an Enter and View Authorised Representative, the main role of which is to interview patients to hear direct from them what their experience of the health service is. We also visit care homes to talk to residents about what it is like to live in a particular care home. I have also done a bit of mystery shopping of health services.

What I have enjoyed about being a volunteer for Healthwatch East Sussex is –

listening to patients and residents in care homes;
finding out about how health services and adult social care services are provided in East Sussex;
working with other volunteers;
the way that Healthwatch works – which is to have a positive attitude - to work co-operatively with the East Sussex Health Trust, Adult Social Care and care homes and other organisations; to be innovative; to be looking to seek to improve services and not merely to criticise them."

Upcoming Events

SEA Fit Events – Newhaven

On the 18^th May, Healthwatch East Sussex will be attending the Sea Fit Event in Newhaven between 10am and 4pm.

If you are in the area, then please visit the event.

SeaFit is a joint initiative run by the Fishermen’s Mission and the Seafarers Hospital Society around the coastline of the UK. Based around tide times and fishing seasons, they bring services to the quayside, giving fishermen easier access to health and wellbeing providers to help them make positive lifestyle choices.

Date: 18^th May
Time: 10am-4pm
Location: West Quay Car Park, Newhaven

For more information please click here.

The Big Help Out

To mark His Majesty the King’s Coronation, thousands of organisations across the country are getting together to give people chance to help out in their own communities.

No matter what you are good at, there’ll be something to suit helping hands of all shapes and sizes!

Whether you’re an organisation that has an idea for an activity, or an individual who wants to find out what’s going on the local area, then visit The Big Help Out website for more information.

Twitter

Facebook

Website