How Healthwatch Can Make a Difference to Consumers of Health And Social Care

We're a completely new organisation Healthwatch -- what a privilege that is to create a completely new organisation. We've got no history, no baggage and we realised in thinking about how we create this organisation we need to work out a way to think from a consumer perspective, from a user perspective about our task. It's absolutely critical that we start with consumers, we start with people because too often the system starts with a set of experts, it starts with a set of institutions, it imposes a set of rules and actually, part of our job is to turn this around and say actually let's hear directly from the public, let's hear directly from consumers what they expect. We are here to think and speak on behalf of the consumers and users of services. Especially with the history of the NHS and with social care, we're kind of grateful for what we're given. But introducing rights into it means that you have a set of entitlements and there's a clarity about what you should be receiving. Having somebody independent overseeing how we can get the most from health services and how everyone, all users, can be hopefully satisfied by using them is a good thing. You need a connecting thing to help you along the way here. Somebody who you can go to and say look this is happening, can you help. I think it can help guide, this is a very loose word, "officialdom" to being more general, more open and more useful to everybody. If anything goes wrong, that I've got a body that I can appeal to or go to. Often the patient's viewpoint is disregarded and for example in Stafford when there were lots of warning signs or warning signals that were ignored really which could easily have been picked-up had the patient's point of view been taken more seriously. If you've got some problem with the services that you've received and you're not happy with it they are an independent body, I think, there to give guidance both to the professionals and again, to the consumers. I think it's good to have somebody that acts on behalf of patients but also keeps the NHS and GP Surgeries in check to ensure that they're meeting their side of the bargain but also has the ear of Government and can act as a sort of pressure group. I think we could reshape and improve the health service massively. That there's somewhere that you can go if you've got a problem with the NHS itself or the staff, I think it's a brilliant idea. If Healthwatch can improve the general standard of things for the average person then it's always going to have an effect on me personally. If Healthwatch can actually get to the people it matters and actually make a difference then it will be good. If I can stop one person going through the battle we had with health and social care and affect a little bit of change I'll feel very happy.