Healthwatch England and Local Healthwatch Organisations To Be Retained
The Government has announced that Healthwatch England and local Healthwatch organisations will be retained and strengthened so that patients’ and public experiences play a greater role in improving health and social care services.
Health secretary Yvette Cooper has decided that the watchdog will stay in place and that its role will be expanded. It had been expected to close as part of the government’s restructuring of the health service in England.
Sources within the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said the decision reflected Ms Cooper’s commitment to public and local accountability. They said this view is shared by Andy Burnham.
Healthwatch England and its network of around 150 local branches will carry on gathering and analysing people’s accounts of using health services, and will continue to highlight where improvements are needed.
Chris McCann, our Acting Chief Executive said: “Healthwatch England welcomes the Government’s decision not to proceed with the abolition of both Healthwatch England and local Healthwatch, and to retain and reform the Healthwatch model.
“This decision recognises the vital role that an independent service user champion plays in helping NHS and social care services to understand people’s experiences and bringing about improvements to the care people receive. It also recognises the brilliant work done, and professionalism shown, by all the staff and volunteers working across Healthwatch England and local Healthwatch during what has been a difficult time.
“Local Healthwatch organisations have continued to hear from hundreds of thousands of people about their experiences of health and social care services. Across the country, these insights help policymakers, commissioners and providers make better decisions for patients, service users and communities.
“At a time when health and care services face significant pressures and are undergoing substantial reform, it is more important than ever that the voices of patients, families and carers are heard clearly and acted upon. Reducing health inequalities must remain central to this work, ensuring that improvements benefit all communities and that people’s circumstances, needs and experiences are not overlooked in shaping the services they rely on.
“The Government’s decision ensures that people will continue to have an independent organisation they can turn to for advice, advocacy and representation.
“We also recognise that this is a moment not simply to continue what exists today, but to build on the strengths of the Healthwatch network.
“Together with local Healthwatch, local authorities, NHS organisations and wider partners, we will focus on strengthening impact. We are confident that new reforms will help to improve quality and consistency, ensuring people and communities, particularly those facing the greatest barriers to good health and care, have a strong, independent voice in the decisions that affect their health and wellbeing.”
Nuffield Trust Chief Executive Thea Stein said: “Abolishing Healthwatch would have thrown away the independence that gave it credibility, without doing anything to address the reasons the NHS often don’t listen.
“It was the wrong solution to a real problem. Healthwatch has played a valuable role in making it more difficult for the NHS to ignore patients’ often frustrating experience of using it.
“This retreat needs to be followed by a cultural shift away from a health service where patients’ voices are all too often at the bottom of a long and impossible list.”
