I have been involved with Healthwatch Isle of Wight since its creation in 2012. 

I started working in the NHS just after my 16th birthday and remained in it for well over 25 years. Even after I’d left the NHS, I maintained contact in various way including being the local Citizens Advice’s representative on the forerunner to Healthwatch, the Local Involvement Network.  

Healthwatch Isle of Wight is one of more than 150 local Healthwatch organisations all commissioned by local councils or public health services. Healthwatch England, a national body, was established to understand the concerns people have about their health and social care  through feedback received directly or through the local Healthwatch network. Healthwatch England can escalate concerns to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and provide advice to the Secretary of State.

Locally we all work independently but due to the recent changes in the NHS structure it is not uncommon for several local Healthwatch to work together on issues of common interest. This is relevant to the Isle of Wight as health services are progressively integrated with those on the mainland, in particular Southampton and Portsmouth.

Views

Having been established by statute we have to fulfil a series of statutory functions and have some statutory powers. Our prime function is to seek the views of the local population about their experiences with local health and social care services, which we then relay back to the appropriate commissioning body and Isle of Wight Council’s Policy and Scrutiny Committee for Health and Social Care. If we are particularly concerned about one service organization we can directly tell the CQC who may decide to make a formal inspection.

So what exactly are we doing with our team comprising the manager and two other paid staff members, a Board of Directors and volunteers undertaking ‘Enter and View’ visits or audits of services? 

Questionnaire

The work agenda is decided by the local population, and we are currently seeking views on which services we need to focus on. To do this we’ve developed an annual questionnaire in which those services the public have commented on are listed and the top three are selected for more in-depth work. 

It is a major exercise as the questionnaire has to be widely distributed across the island community. To help with this we have a free post arrangement. The response has always been positive with over a thousand responses received last year. This year it might be even more given current local and national issues.

Needless to say, it is anticipated that the top two focuses for this coming year will be access to general practice and dental services. With specific reference to dental services, we submitted evidence to the Parliamentary Health and Social Care Committee inquiry into NHS dentistry  in 2022. Our manager attended the Committee’s meeting to discuss NHS Dentistry in June 2023 and told the MPs of the issues Island residents face when struggling to access NHS dental care.

Critical friend

Our relationship with service providers, particularly the NHS can be best described as that of a ‘critical friend’. This approach has steadily built a good working relationship evidenced by the fact that members of the team are often involved in quality audits of services. We are also represented at a number of NHS trusts’ internal committees, enabling us to ensure people’s voices are heard.

We also work closely with the Isle of Wight Council Adult Social Care Services and support its quality visits to local care providers. While Council does the formal checks on services, we engage with some of the people living there and their relatives to ascertain their feelings about the care or services they receive. This helps provide an overall picture of that organisation at that moment in time.

I mentioned earlier Enter and View. What is it? Basically it’s a team of volunteers who we train to visit the providers of health and social care. They make these visits to conduct a review from the perspective of the user and can be quite enlightening. 

If, after reading this you feel that you would like to be involved with your local Healthwatch the contact details are on the Healthwatch England website.

Chris Orchin

Read more about Healthwatch England's findings on the disabled adults missing out on social care.