Healthwatch and the WI: Together we can help people get the best care

Kaf from Old Trafford Wonder Women writes about how you can work with your local Healthwatch to feed back about your experiences of local health services.

Photo: Altrincham hospital 

When you or somebody you care about is ill or needs support, nothing matters more than good quality local health and social care services.

One of the reasons I love the WI is the way it enables members to get more involved in every area of the community. We’re doers – we don’t sit back, we speak up for ourselves, our families, and for all local people.

As an organisation, we’ve done lots to help people get the best health and social care. Our campaigns have stimulated more people to donate their organs and discuss their organ donation wishes, to call for more midwives, to help reduce social isolation and encourage carers to feel welcome in hospitals. I’m the President of a relatively new branch - the Old Trafford Wonder Women WI, all of 2.5 years old - and one of our most interesting challenges has been to find ways to take action locally on the national resolutions passed at the Annual Meeting.

In addition to my role with the WI, I’m the Volunteer Co-ordinator for Healthwatch Trafford. Healthwatch is here to listen to what people think of health and social care, to call for changes where they’re needed, and to help people find information about local care. I’ve worked in the public sector since 1999 and I believe strongly that people should have a say about local services.

My team of volunteers speak to people across Trafford, finding out what works and what they’d like to change about local care. They travel to all areas of the community, making sure that everybody can have their say.

No matter how big or small the issue, speaking up about it can make a real difference, as the odds are that if it matters to you, it matters to somebody else too. There’s a Healthwatch for every local authority area in England, so there’ll be one local to you – you can type your postcode into the search box on the www.healthwatch.co.uk homepage and it’ll show you where your local Healthwatch is based and how to get in touch.

During the last few months, Healthwatch has been running its ‘It Starts With You’ campaign, to demonstrate the power people’s voices can have. 

As advocates for our local community, there’s a huge opportunity for Healthwatch and our WI to work together more effectively. I would love to see us encouraging more people in our community to speak up about what they think of services. Healthwatch has already supported parts of our work too, such as our Time to Talk about organ donation campaign, and I’m looking forward to finding more opportunities for us to collaborate.

I'm sure your local Healthwatch will be keen to hear members' experiences of being a carer supporting a patient in hospital - how was their care? Were you enabled to stay / did you have extended visiting hours? You can work with your local Healthwatch to ensure change happens in your area.

So please do spread the ‘It Starts With You’ message. You can find out more about the campaign here.

And if you’d like to become a Healthwatch volunteer in the Trafford area, or you have an experience of local care to share – good or bad – please get in touch.

You can find details of your local Healthwatch branch here.