HealthWatch England

This article is about the official organisations established under the Health and Social Care Act 2012. For the charity which promotes evidence-based medicine see HealthWatch.

Healthwatch England was established under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, which took effect in April 2013. The Healthwatch network is made of up of local Healthwatch across each of the 152 local authority areas and Healthwatch England, the national body.

Healthwatch England is the only statutory body whose sole purpose is to understand the needs, experiences and concerns of people who use health and social care services and to speak out on their behalf. The Healthwatch network works together to share information, expertise and learning in order to improve health and social care services.

Predecessor organisations

Healthwatch is the latest reorganisation of arrangements to involve patients and the public in the running of the NHS in England. Community Health Councils (CHC) were established in 1974 and abolished in 2003 to be replaced by Public and Patient Involvement Forums[1] run by the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health. They were replaced in their turn in April 2008 by Local Involvement Networks. Community Health Councils continue in Wales. Scotland has a quite different system run by the Scottish Health Council.

Resources

The 148 local Healthwatch groups were allocated £43.5m by the Department of Health in 2013 but the groups only received £33.5m of this – leaving £10m unaccounted for. Anna Bradley, chair of Healthwatch England,[2] said: "This discovery is hugely disappointing. Less than 4p out of every £10,000 spent on health and social care was allocated to champion the cause of consumers in the first place and even this tiny amount is failing to reach those charged with speaking out on behalf of their local communities. The tragedies of Mid Staffs, Morecambe Bay and Winterbourne View all highlight what happens when the system fails to listen."[3]

Local Healthwatch

The announced intention was that each local Healthwatch would be an independent organisation, able to employ its own staff and involve volunteers and accountable in its own right.[4] Plans to make the local healthwatch in Leicester an independent organisation were thwarted by Voluntary Action Leicester who had been charged with establishing the organisation but would not hand over the contract to the newly established Healthwatch Leicester Ltd.[5]

Criticism

An independent "People’s Healthwatch" was set up in October 2013 to challenge Healthwatch Bracknell Forest. Terry Pearce, the founder said: “It’s a separate body to the Healthwatch. It will be independent, democratic and non-party political. To effectively review the health services in the borough, I believe the group needs to stay at arm’s length from the council. We’re not the official Healthwatch, they are, but we think they’re too close to the council to be independent.”[6]

The People's Inquiry into London's NHS recommended that Health Watch England be closed down and that local Health Watch bodies are separated from the Care Quality Commission and modelled on the old Community Health Councils. They should link up with local community organisations, pensioners groups and other community organisations, and be given the statutory powers to inspect hospital and community services, to object to changes which lack public acceptance and to force a decision on contested changes from the Secretary of State.[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Will Healthwatch give patients a better deal?", The Guardian. Accessed 8 December 2014.
  2. ↑ "Anna Bradley, chair of Healthwatch England: standing up for patients", The Guardian. Accessed 8 December 2014.
  3. ↑ "£10m of Healthwatch cash 'goes missing'". Health Service Journal. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  4. ↑ "What is Healthwatch?". Department of health. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  5. ↑ "Five quit health watch dog". Leicester Mercury. 19 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
  6. ↑ "'People’s' health watchdog launched to rival Healthwatch Bracknell Forest". Get Reading. 20 October 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  7. ↑ "People’s Inquiry into London’s NHS Supported by Unite the union, London and Eastern region London’s NHS at the Crossroads". Retrieved 3 March 2015.

External links