Online event – Long Covid

Online event – Long Covid

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Online event – Long Covid

Join us for our next free online lunchtime event on Friday 14 July, 1pm-2pm.

We will hear from Dr Charles Shepherd, Hon. Medical Adviser at the ME Association, who will talk to us about Long Covid and the similarities with ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

He will explain what is known about the condition and discuss the best approach to managing the symptoms. He will also talk about how functional ability and quality of life might be improved.

There will be a chance to ask questions.

 and we will send you a link to join closer to the event.

If you would like to tell us about your experience of Long Covid and the health and care services you have used, please get in touch.

This event has now passed

Our Strategic Plan 2023-26

Our Strategic Plan 2023-26

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Our strategic plan sets out what we want to do over the next three years, as identified by our board.

Health and social care are vital parts of many people’s day to day lives. Many of us are passionate about the NHS and social care because we, or a loved one, are using a service right now. At some point, though, it is likely that every one of us will need support or treatment.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic we were working in a period of major change in health and social care and their delivery mechanisms. The pandemic and the response to it have increased the challenges that relate to demographic, economic and environmental factors and we need to take all of these into consideration when developing our strategy and planning our work.

Healthwatch Northumberland voices people’s concerns and provides feedback to service providers and commissioners. By engaging directly with users of the service and their carers we collect vital data on how and why people us e services in their area.

The potential scope of our work is vast as it covers health and social care services for all adults, children and young people in Northumberland with particular reference to those who are most vulnerable or may be excluded. This means we must prioritise the issues we focus on.

We have three strategic aims which are the themes for our work over the lifetime of the strategy. Our work each year will be identified as meeting one or more of the aims.

Health
With the help of Healthwatch Northumberland, the views, knowledge and experiences of a health service users and carers, particularly those less often heard, are listened to, and have a positive influence on changes and developments in health services in Northumberland.

Social care
With the help of Healthwatch Northumberland, the views, knowledge and experiences of a social care service users and carers, particularly those less often heard, are listened to, and have a positive influence on changes and developments in social care services in Northumberland.

Promotion
Healthwatch Northumberland is used by people in the county as a trusted source of information and signposting to health and social care services. Service providers, commissioners and key stakeholders in Northumberland and the wider care system know, trust and actively engage with Healthwatch Northumberland.

The activities and projects we do will change each year and will be set out in an Operational Plan as Strategic Objectives. These provide the framework for specific activities in the Operational Plan and delivered through our core activities of Engagement and Insight, Communications, Volunteering and Strategic Influence.

Healthwatch Northumberland Operation Plan 2023-26

What you told us: May 23

What you told us: May 23

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland May 2023

During May you told us about the difficulties you were having ordering and getting hold of prescription medicine. We also heard from a number of people that they were still having issues booking a GP appointment. Poor service in local hospitals was another theme from feedback this month.

This month we spent time listening to customers of Lloyds Pharmacy in Sainsbury’s Cramlington, about the impact of the planned closure of the pharmacy this summer. We visited the pharmacy, which is the only 100 hours per week pharmacy in Cramlington, at different times of the day and week, to speak to customers and the wider community, to see what effect the closure would have on local people and other pharmacies in the area. We also provided an online feedback form and heard from 230 people.

As well as our regular Here to Hear drop-in sessions in Berwick, Blyth, Prudhoe, Morpeth and Bedlington, we attended events which included Prudhoe Health Week, the Fishermen’s Mission SeaFit event in Amble and the Choppington Disability Group monthly session.

Read our short report below to find out more.

Healthwatch Northumberland report May 2023

Eye care pathways Northumberland

Eye care pathways Northumberland

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Eye care pathways in Northumberland – do they really work and how could they be improved?

In Northumberland, as across England as a whole, growing numbers of people are living with sight loss or impairment. This is likely to increase further as people live longer since a good deal of vision impairment is related to the ageing process. The estimated number of people living with sight loss in Northumberland is 13,500 (4% of the county’s population) which is higher than the national average and this is estimated to rise to 5% of the county’s population by 2032.

Consequently, vision rehabilitation services are considered key to prevention, supporting independence, and reducing demand for health and social care services.

The total estimated indirect cost of sight loss in Northumberland is over £32million. In 2020-2021 people in Northumberland living with sight loss and a wider audience told Vision Northumberland that some people in the county experience unfair barriers to accessing registration and low vision/rehabilitation services, that the eye care pathway in Northumberland was flawed, and that people did not know what services were available to them.

People stressed the importance of:

  • Support close to home rather than travelling to Newcastle
  • Support that focuses on the health and wellbeing impacts of sight loss such as depression, social isolation and loneliness
  • Good support from officers such as Eye Clinic Liaison Officers, low vision specialists and rehabilitation officers
  • Joined up working and effective signposting between services
  • Developing the necessary skills to live with sight loss and maintain independence
  • Access to comprehensive assessments that balance different aspects of a person’s life
  • Health and social care professionals who are compassionate, understand the challenges of sight loss, and have knowledge of visual rehabilitation services and support
  • Accessible information and advice especially in GP services

This report, funded by Healthwatch Northumberland, follows up on that work asking the key questions:

What challenges do people with sight loss in Northumberland experience when accessing registration and low vision/rehabilitation services as outlined in the Care Act 2014?
Does the eye care pathway really work in Northumberland and how could it be improved?

Read the eye care pathways in Northumberland report

Online event – Arthritis Action

Online event – Arthritis Action

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Online event – Arthritis Action

Join us for our next online lunchtime event on Friday 9 June, 1pm-2pm. Ruth Smith, Engagement & Events Coordinator for Arthritis Action, will be joining us to talk about arthritis, self-management and resources for people living with the condition.

She will cover topics including pain management, diet and keeping active for those who may be new to exercise but want some tips on how to start.

This session is suitable for people who live or work in Northumberland and are living with or working with any form of arthritis, including osteoarthritis, inflammatory arthritis and gout. The presentation may also be useful for those with other conditions causing joint pain such as fibromyalgia.

There will be a chance to ask questions.

 and we will send you a link to join closer to the event.

If you would like more information or would like to tell us about health or social care services you have used please get in touch.

This event has now passed

Autistic young people and mental health services

Autistic young people and mental health services

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 “We’re scared parents with even more scared children”

Are NHS mental health services working for autistic children and young people?

 

We heard from local families that some NHS mental health services aren’t working for their autistic children. To get a better picture of what is happening we asked people living in Northumberland to tell us about their experiences of mental health services including what is working well and what could be better. We heard from parents and carers of children and young people with a formal autism diagnosis or currently being assessed, or where there is an indication of autism. We asked for feedback on the different services that families were involved with such as school nursing, Children and Young People Service (CYPS), Primary Mental Health Work Service (PMHW), Universal Crisis Team (UCT), and any other services with which they may have been in contact.

We worked with parents and carers to create our feedback form to make sure the information we were asking for was appropriate and gave enough opportunity to provide relevant feedback on the services. Thank you to everyone who shared their views and experiences with us and helped to promote this piece of work.

We are aware there are issues not only in Northumberland but also nationally with recruitment and retention of staff across the health and social care sector as a whole, and we appreciate that the feedback should be considered within this wider context.

This report is an overview of out findings and key recommendations on the issues raised by parents and carers of autistic children and young people who live in Northumberland and use, or have used, NHS mental health or autism diagnosis services.

Autistic young people and mental health services report

Ponteland High wins our hamper!

Ponteland High wins our hamper!

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We recently ran a campaign to help us hear from young people aged 13 – 24 who live in Northumberland. We wanted to hear how they were feeling, which healthcare services they had recently used and what their experience had been. To help us reach young people we worked with a number of schools in the county. They helped by distributing information about the campaign, the links to the online form and signposting information to services and organisations providing care, support and advice for young people. As an incentive we were able to offer a £100 Love2Shop voucher in a proze draw to one person who gave us feedback – the winner of the voucher was a student of Castle School in Ashington.

We also offered a wellbeing hamper to the school with the highest percentage of students completing our form. The winner was Ponteland High School – congratulations to them! Pictured is Jonny Greenshields, Assistant Head Teacher at Ponteland High School, being presented with the hamper by our Communication and Marketing Officer, Claire. Jonny told us “We’re very happy to have won the wellbeing hamper as part of this campaign. We scheduled this into lesson plans and the campaign fit extremely well with the work we have been doing with students around ‘having a voice’ in varying aspects of life, from democracy to healthcare.”

The results of this piece of work will be published later in the year.

What you told us: April 2023

What you told us: April 2023

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Health and care feedback Northumberland April 2023

The main issues we heard about in April were accessing GP services, and the quality of service when seen, hospital service and access to NHS dentists – we are still hearing from people about the lack of provision in Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Our main focus this month was passing on to the council and the NHS what we heard from you at our Here to Hear drop-in sessions. We promoted the COVID-19 spring booster vaccination programme and our public online info session this month was around disordered eating, with guests from Eating Distress North East.

Read our short report below to see at a glance who we heard from during the month and the services we heard about.

 

Healthwatch Northumberland report April 2023

Closure of Lloyds pharmacy

Closure of Lloyds pharmacy

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Lloyds pharmacy in Sainsbury’s, Manor Walks, Cramlington is due to close this summer on a date yet to be confirmed. As your independent local health and social care champion, we would like to hear from residents and those who use the pharmacy about how the planned closure may affect them.

Our team have been at Lloyds pharmacy during May 2023 talking to customers about the potential impact of the closure of the pharmacy. We will continue to collect feedback over the next few weeks and you can still share your views online.

We have already been able to take what we’ve been hearing and share it immediately with decision makers, so that they can understand and act upon the issues raised. Our Project Coordinator Derry presented our findings so far to the Northumberland Health and Wellbeing Board on 11 May. You can watch the meeting below – Derry speaks from around 18 minutes in.

Health and Wellbeing Board meeting 11 May 2023

If you would like to speak to us please get in touch.