Annual Report 2015/16

Healthwatch Bolton report on its key achievements for 2015/16.  It:

• Influenced improvements to local health and social care through Enter and View visits to care homes, focusing on personalised care, meaningful activities and residents’ experiences, with findings shared directly with providers to support service improvements.
• Led and contributed to Greater Manchester-wide research on patient transport services, helping secure changes to patient information, complaints handling, staff training and service specifications.
• Published research on access to oral healthcare in care homes, highlighting unmet needs among residents and supporting action by dental and public health organisations to improve access to services.
• Expanded community engagement, attending over 100 events and outreach activities, gathering residents’ experiences from a wide range of communities, including carers, homeless people, refugees, faith groups and minority ethnic communities.
• Strengthened its information and signposting service, helping residents access health and care support, understand local services and navigate the health and social care system.
• Ensured local people’s views influenced major service changes across Greater Manchester through engagement on healthcare transformation programmes and representation on strategic health and care forums.
• Developed its evidence and intelligence role by collecting community feedback, producing regular insight reports and sharing findings with commissioners, providers, regulators and the Health and Wellbeing Board.