Agenda item

Charlotte Bradford, Operations Co-ordinator – Healthwatch Bromley (“Operations Co-ordinator”) provided an update to the Sub-Committee regarding the Healthwatch Bromley Quarter 1 2022-2023 Patient Engagement Report.

The Operations Co-ordinator informed Members that 600 reviews had been collated during the Quarter 1 period (April to June 2022). Overall, based on the star ratings received, 71% of responses received from patients had been positive, 5% neutral and 24% had been negative. Dentist, GP and hospital services were the most reviewed services during Quarter 1. The majority of service users found Dentist services to be excellent, and high levels of satisfaction had been recorded across all areas. The negative feedback received was minimal, but related to appointments and staff attitudes. GP practices and hospitals had generally received a good level of satisfaction – again the areas identified for improvement were appointments, communication and waiting times. Other areas that had received positive reviews were pharmacies, COVID-19 vaccination centres and opticians. The Chairman highlighted that patients were dissatisfied in terms of being able to get an appointment, but appeared to be very satisfied once they did so.

The Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Health noted that it was widely publicised in the media that people had difficulties in getting appointments with NHS dentists, and enquired if the data collated differentiated between NHS and private dentists. It was suggested that issues with NHS dental appointments could be discussed at a future meeting of the Sub-Committee. The Operations Co-ordinator said they had recently undertaken a check to ensure that only NHS dentists were listed on the Healthwatch Bromley website for collecting feedback.

With regards to information on demographics, it was noted that Healthwatch Bromley were looking to find new ways to engage with individuals – over the last few months they had been trying to reach out to the Gypsy-Roma Traveller community, which they were aware would take some time. The demographics of patients providing responses had changed over the last six months, and they were trying to broaden their engagement to speak to those who may not normally have a voice. 

A Member noted that there that been a reduction in the feedback relating to Urgent Care, and questioned if this made it difficult to understand how this area was performing. The Operations Co-ordinator advised that they were a small team with limited resources, and relied heavily on volunteers to help gather feedback – they had ambitions to engage as widely as they could across the borough, but this was limited by capacity. An area of focus had been mental health – this was a sensitive subject matter so there were always areas that needed to be taken into consideration. They had been looking at the overall patient experience programme and how it could be developed in terms of the questions asked. It was hoped that the new forms being used would allow them to collect data that was beneficial to the borough.

In response to questions regarding the methodology for collecting data, the Operations Co-ordinator said that since moving out of lockdown, they had been re-establishing relationships with GP practices, in terms of being allowed into reception spaces to speak with service users. The majority of these visits took place between 9.00am and 11.00am, on average three times a week – this was dependent on capacity and the timings were based on the advice received from GP practices in relation to footfall. The majority of visits to hospitals took place between 10.00am and 12.00pm – however recent visits to Orpington Hospital had taken place between 1.00pm and 3.00pm, which was dictated by the department they were visiting. Visits to community centres took place when there was decent footfall and an availability to gather feedback.

A Co-opted Member noted that one response had been received in relation to mental health services, which appeared to relate to waiting times, and question if this situation was likely to improve. The Director of Adult Social Care advised that this would be something that Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust would need to comment on, and suggested that an update from them be added to the Sub-Committee’s work programme. The Operations Co-ordinator said that Healthwatch Bromley had built a strong relationship with Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust over recent months, and they had been engaging with services users to gain greater feedback on mental health services.

In response to questions, the Operations Co-ordinator said that the patient feedback form was available on the Healthwatch Bromley website. A new poster, which contained a QR code, had also been designed which provided patients with information on how to contact them if they did not want to provide feedback face-to-face. Whilst the website and online form was beneficial for those who were more digitally able, they would like to encourage more face-to-face engagement through focus groups or forums. It was noted that Healthwatch Bromley approached community centres to speak to a broader range of people – they had recently recruited some new committee members and hoped to expand this further.

The Chairman thanked the Operations Co-ordinator for her update to the Sub-Committee.

RESOLVED that the update be noted.