Concerns raised over loss of watchdog patient independence at Birmingham health trust
Concerns have been raised about the potential loss of the independent voice of patients in Birmingham and Solihull with the abolition of a health watchdog.
Earlier this month, the Government published its Ten Year Health Plan which sets out major changes to the NHS and this was followed by Dr Penny Dash’s review on patient safety.
The plan called for getting rid of a string of watchdog organisations including Healthwatch while the Penny Dash report echoed the sentiments and said the function should fall to care boards and local authorities.
But Andy Cave, chief executive of Healthwatch Birmingham, told a meeting of the NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) this had caused concerns about the loss of independence for the public.
He asked members of the board to use their voices in support of independence as well as thinking about how patient engagement will look in the future.
Mr Cave said: “It was quite a shock for us, we didn’t see it coming.
“The Penny Dash report looked at Healthwatch England and didn’t look at local healthwatches so it was a surprise the recommendation came through to abolish local healthwatches as well as Healthwatch England.
“We don’t know much at this moment in time as to what the future holds, just the headlines that actually the local Healthwatch functions will shift into the ICB for health services and to the local authorities for social care facilities.
“It does require legislative change so we’ll probably be looking at 12 months to 24 months for this change to happen.
“So there is a period of uncertainty really to what the future holds from a patient point of view.
“The biggest concern we hold is the removal of independence of patient experience.
“Independence has been such a valuable thing and dismantling that does cause us significant concerns.
“It’s really important for us as a system to think about what that means for the future and how we maintain that patient voice, focus and how we maintain that at a neighbourhood level.”
A number of members of the ICB Board said that there were many positive aspects of the Ten Year Health Plan which they welcomed.
But they echoed the sentiments about ensuring people using services retained independence, adding a solution needed to be found.
