Healthwatch Cheshire East publish Annual Report for 2020/21
Healthwatch Cheshire East are proud to publish our Annual Report for 2020/21.
It has been a strange year but one in which we are very proud of our team of staff and volunteers. Healthwatch staff and volunteers have seen and heard many of the challenges that have faced people as a result of Covid-19. We have also seen, or been a part of, the flexible and rapid approaches put in place to deliver support to those most in need, and to provide effective planning and communication.
This year, we have received 2,430 responses from people across Cheshire to our COVID-19 survey, resulting in around 9,000 comments about access to health and care, and people’s mental health and wellbeing. Having been presented at the Cheshire East Council Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Health and Wellbeing Board, and the NHS Cheshire CCG Quality and Safeguarding Committee, the reports have been vital in assisting the pandemic response locally and strategically in informing future commissioning intentions to provide joined-up care for people as close to home as possible.
With the pandemic leaving us unable to conduct our regular Enter and View activity, we have conducted surveys for residents of care homes and their friends and relatives, with some heart-warming responses about some of the great care and effort staff are going to during the pandemic. It has been a pleasure this year to follow up our work from previous years with the Boating community, and help them to obtain GP Access Cards to register with GP Practices and access COVID-19 vaccines.
Members of our team have supported at vaccination centres during the rollout, including talking to people about their experience, taking temperatures, and directing people around the centres. We have helped to promote and provide information to people about the vaccination programme, and have been feeding people’s experiences and our observations into Cheshire’s Vaccination Steering Group and Communications Cell to enable the programme’s continued development and to help in the messaging to encourage people to get their vaccines. Our work has included asking our Citizens Focus Panel about their views and experiences of the vaccine programme.
As well as making sure people’s views are heard during this changed time, our team have also been involved in supporting people in our community during the pandemic. Staff and volunteer time has been offered to help with shopping and prescription collections for people shielding, whilst our amazing volunteers have donated books and twiddle muffs to care home residents.
We hope that you enjoy reading more about all of our work in this Annual Report, and that you will share in our pride at what our team has achieved this year.