Annual Report 2016/17

Healthwatch Coventry report on its key achievements for 2016/17. It:

• Carried out 13 Enter and View visits, produced 14 reports and made 82 recommendations, leading to improvements in care homes including dementia-friendly design, better use of gardens, enhanced activities, environmental improvements and improved communication with residents.
• Influenced improvements to the non-emergency patient transport service by highlighting delays, communication problems and wheelchair capacity issues. As a result, renal dialysis patients were given a direct contact route to the transport service and commissioners acted on concerns about wheelchair provision. 
• Gathered the views of 703 local people on community pharmacy services, identifying strong support for a greater role for pharmacies in supporting primary care and highlighting the need for better public information about available pharmacy services. 
• Ensured patient voices influenced NHS quality improvement by contributing to NHS Trust Quality Accounts, helping set quality priorities for 2017/18 and making quality reports clearer and easier for the public to understand. 
• Highlighted concerns about communication with patients and families during hospital Root Cause Analysis investigations and successfully pressed for improvements in how hospitals communicate with people affected by serious incidents. 
• Used its NHS complaints advocacy service to support 74 people and families through NHS complaints and 10 people through Ombudsman referrals, helping secure outcomes including changes to referral pathways, staff training, complaints handling, patient safety procedures and clinical practice.
• Amplified the experiences of local people by gathering feedback from 1,823 residents, providing health and social care information to 481 people, and sharing intelligence with the Care Quality Commission to inform inspections of social care, primary care and hospital services. 
• Tracked the experiences of residents affected by the closure of four Housing with Care schemes, producing recommendations for Coventry City Council on assessment, communication and support during major service changes.