HealthWatch Lancashire unveiled to improve services (From Lancashire Telegraph)
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HealthWatch Lancashire unveiled to improve services
3:00pm Tuesday 26th June 2012 in News
By Catherine Pye, Health reporter
A NEW organisation to improve health and social services in Lancashire has been unveiled.
Lancashire County Council has joined forces with Parkwood Healthcare to form a new health watchdog called HealthWatch Lancashire.
Parkwood specialises in providing staff, including nurses, care assistants and project workers, to the NHS, private and voluntary organisations.
From April 2013, the new organisation will replace the current Lancashire Local Involvement Network (LINk) as an independent watchdog, listening to local people's concerns and ensuring the best services for them.
In addition, HealthWatch Lancashire will:
- Look in greater detail at the specific health needs of people in Lancashire and set out strategies to address these
- Be a voice developing new ways of working, to ensure health and social care services work more closely with the community and have a greater influence on making changes
- Have a seat on the Health and Wellbeing Board to ensure the needs of people are taken into account by the organisations that provide health and soc-ial care services
County Coun Val Wilson, cabinet member for health and wellbeing, said: “HealthWatch will represent a new, innovative way of working, and will give Lancashire people who use health and social care a greater voice.
It will have more powers to act on their concerns.
“This is part of a new way of working and HealthWatch Lancashire will work closely with HealthWatch England as part of the national, health and social care review.”
Staff currently working for Lancashire LiNk will be transferred to Parkwood Healthcare Ltd.
Comments(11)
Sir Bill Taylor
says...
4:50pm Tue 26 Jun 12
Pan-cake
says...
7:32pm Tue 26 Jun 12
How many votes did that lose in the last election?
When is the next County election?
Pan-cake
says...
7:44pm Tue 26 Jun 12
http://hhgrahamjones
.blogspot.co.uk/2012
/06/lancashires-heal
th-and-wellbeing-boa
rd.html#more
Rappide
says...
8:30pm Tue 26 Jun 12
mavrick
says...
8:40pm Tue 26 Jun 12
mavrick
says...
8:42pm Tue 26 Jun 12
woolywords
says...
10:36am Wed 27 Jun 12
Now we are going to invite a Plc, that is profit driven, to take up another seat and advise us on the best way of doing things, for an hefty fee. No doubt they will need a team of staff on the different premises within their remit, which all has to be paid for out of a dwindling budget of NHS/County and Local services.
Administrators are now milking the system, as if it's some kind of cash cow with infinate udders. We haven't enough people to do the job at the sharp end, giving a decent standard of expected care, yet we can afford another set of beaurocrats.
Who then, watches the Watchmen? Or shall we be fed with another Noble Lie from those whom have our interests at heart, allegedly?
@caulfieldr
says...
4:02pm Wed 27 Jun 12
Izanears
says...
4:08pm Wed 27 Jun 12
mmittee to ensure that the interests of people are looked after when they need the NHS. There is already dozens of them, and still we have dirty hospitals. Old folk are still neglected when in hospital, and you can't get a doctors appointment for days, Oh! and you haven't a snowballs chance in Hell of getting a home visit or out of hours call from your own doctor.
Pendlesider
says...
11:56pm Sat 30 Jun 12
.
Lancashire LINKs covered the whole of east lancashire and the same rhetroric such as 'more innovative ways of working, and 'greater say in healthcare' applied. Yet NOTHING changed, except the way the 'local voice' fell into the void of the much larger system of a 'Lancashire run watchdog type scheme'.
.
If I'm not mistaken, it was Tony Greaves' (commenting above) lib dem party who promoted the implementation of the newly formed 'Healthwatch bodies' to replace the LINKs. It seems getting into bed with the tories and their manifesto to privatise healthcare, is coming home to roost for Mr Greaves and if it's not to his liking then I suggest his Lib dem party now disassociate themselves from Tory life and do the honest thing and resign.
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Like it or not, the current Con Dem government passed the health and social care bill with clauses to allow such services to be provided by the private sector, and THIS is only the TIP of the iceberg believe me!
.
The Con Dems also said they'd abolish primary care trusts (PCTs) and replace them with a democratically elected board of 'clinical commissioning groups (CCGS). Yet what we NOW see is the newly formed CCGs consisting of the SAME chairpersons who sat originally on the PCTs!!! they were 'appointed' not elected,so much for democracy!
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IF you have any concerns about your voice being heard in local healthcare provision, then consider you are living under a government who weren't truly elected with a majority, and had to form a coalition with a party that sold off their Liberal values in the vague hope they would tame Tory policies. BOTH parties have failed miserably, not just on health, but on education and other crucial issues.
tonygreaves says...
3:40pm Tue 26 Jun 12
Tony Greaves