Agenda item

Report of the Chair of Healthwatch City of London

The Committee received the report from an Officer of Healthwatch City of London. Members noted that Healthwatch had begun establishing working relationships with the major health providers - Homerton University Hospital, and the hospitals comprising the Barts Health Trust, the East London Mental Health Trust, the City and Hackney Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and UCL Health Partners, as well as having planned visits to University College Hospital this year.

In response to a query from Members it was noted that the Corporation had been very helpful in assisting with access and representation on committees such as on the Adult Advisory Group and Safeguarding Group, and their support had been appreciated by the staff team.

The draft priorities for 2014 would be agreed at the Healthwatch Board Development day in January and circulated for consultation in February. After input from Members the priorities would be finalised in February 2014. The future reports would identify progress on the priorities agreed by the membership of Healthwatch City of London, and any urgent items that were

identified as part of the routine work of the organisation.

Members were concerned about the low response rate to the survey. Members suggested that the survey should be more interactive to capture as many opinions as possible. Suggestions included visiting GP surgeries to speak with patients after their appointments and advertising the online survey via notice boards including those at the Barbican Centre and Golden Lane Estate. Members requested that the aggregate results be reported back to the Board and NHS England.

In response to a query from Members it was noted that promoting the use of the ‘111’ emergency number was not the responsibility of the Board, as it was an NHS service, and not a key responsibility of Health and Wellbeing Boards.

Members agreed that although the report format was good, it may be useful to have two separate reports in future; one for the Health and Wellbeing Board to consider important issues, and the other for the Health and Scrutiny Sub Committee to consider scrutiny issues.