HealthWatch
HealthWatch England Membership Consultation
Stakeholders and the public are being asked to contribute to the development of the HealthWatch England membership regulations.
This consultation asks questions on the key issues in relation to the membership of HealthWatch England that the Department has heard from stakeholders.
These issues are: the number of the members; suitability for membership; the process for appointing members; the period of time a member should be appointed.
The Consultation on the regulations for HealthWatch England help ensure that the public have a strong national presence to represent their views and help drive up improvements across the NHS.
The deadline for comments is Friday 2 March 2012.
New start date and more funding announced for local HealthWatch bodies
Further details on the establishment of local HealthWatch bodies, including a new start date and extra funding, have been set out by health minister Andrew Lansley.
Following feedback from local authorities and local involvement networks (LINks), they now have until April 2013 to work with local health experts and volunteers to establish the local HealthWatch. The new local health bodies are set to replace LINks and will be the local consumer champion for patients, service users and the public. From next year, an additional £3.2m will also be made available to local authorities to establish local HealthWatch. (More)
HealthWatch consultation is now on line
Access can be gained from this link
Alternatively you can access it at Sunderland City Council’s consultation calendar.
Please note the closing date is 12th December to allow time to analysis the results and feed into the specification.
LINk to HealthWatch
Keep up to date
To strengthen the collective voice of patients and carers in the system at both a local and national level, Local Involvement Networks (LINks) will evolve to become Local HealthWatch by October 2012, and HealthWatch England will be set up as the independent consumer champion within the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
HealthWatch will be the independent consumer champion for the public i.e. service users, citizens, carers and patients – locally and nationally – to promote better outcomes in health for all and in social care for adults.
Building on the LINks’ functions to involve and engage, to enter and view premises providing care to service users it will provide additional functions to that of LINk.
- Influencing – local HealthWatch will present the views and experiences of local service users to local managers and decision makers
- Signposting (October 2012) – providing information to service users to access health and social care services and promoting choice
- Advocacy (April 2013) Provide Advocacy to people who wish to complain about health services.
More information can be found in our documents section.
