News and reports

Our volunteer, Linda, shares her experiences of being an Enter & View and why she volunteers at Healthwatch Barnet.

The Royal Free Hospital has been reviewing their blood taking service (also known as phlebotomy service) to ensure that they are delivering the very best care to their patients.

Whether you are visiting the GP, living in a care home or having an operation, everyone deserves access to safe, high-quality care.

During February and March 2019, we conducted a survey with patients attending A&E departments in the Royal Free Hospital Trust. Our team of staff and volunteers visited the Accident & Emergency Departments at Barnet Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital to gather the views of over 500 patients. The main objective was to identify why people were coming to A&E.

According to the report published on 25 September 2019 the Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust has been rated as Good following the latest inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) between 18 June to 30 July 2019 .

Welcome to our Summer 2019 newsletter. In this edition, we have updates on our Healthwatch projects, including language services at GPs, the Long Term Plan for the NHS, our safeguarding reviews at care homes and much more.

All Barnet GP practices have access to language interpreters through Language Line Solutions; an over the phone interpreting service. However, we have received anecdotal feedback that this interpreting service is not widely used by GPs.

Our annual report shows how our Healthwatch Barnet team of volunteers and staff have been at the forefront of changes brought about in the health and social care services, bringing local voices and experiences to the attention of decision makers.

During the CCG’s consultation period, we received emails from patients and carers of patients currently registered at Ravenscroft Medical Practice. All the emails raised concerns about the proposed move and the impact on patients. We attended three of the open consultation sessions to listen to the feedback from patients and carers and to CCG’s and Ravenscroft Medical Centre’s response to this feedback. As a result we identified several issues and recommended action to help support patients, should the proposed move take place.

This visit to Cricklewood Walk-in Centre, was a follow up to the visits made in January and March 2018 and was arranged with the recently appointed Practice Manager to discuss the recommendations of those reports. The report also talks about the future of the centre, which is on the border of Barnet, Brent and Camden. We were told that about half the patients come from Brent, about 40% from Barnet and 10% from Camden.

This announced E&V visit was part of a planned set of visits reviewing safeguarding at a range of care and nursing homes within Barnet. In this visit we focussed on identifying any signs of abuse as described by the Social Care Institute for Excellence. This ‘at a glance’ briefing which aims to help people who come into contact with people with care and support needs to identify abuse and recognise possible indicators. Many types of abuse are also criminal offences and should be treated as such.

In summer and autumn 2018, we were contacted by community organisations, individuals and some GP staff about the difficulties patients were experiencing in using hospital transport for their journeys to and from Royal Free Hospital sites.