Our Engagement: VE Day Coffee Morning
In today’s Engagement Story, we hosted Professor David Appleby-Croisdale, the Chair of Healthwatch England, who accompanied us to a VE Day celebration hosted by our Community Champion, Ray from Veterans In Communities. We heard from 20 people about their experiences, including some instances where our signposting had led to positive outcomes.
Steve and Sue hosted Professor David and accompanied him to an engagement with a group of veterans.
Professor David was introduced to stakeholders from local groups such as the CVS and project workers at the Trinity hub. Ray discussed some ongoing collaborative pieces of work that Healthwatch Lancashire are carrying out, as part of our Enter and View programme and our 2025/26 workplan, which you can read here.
During the visit we spoke with people who had previously been signposted and given advice due to issues they were experiencing in obtaining medication from their local dispensary. We learned that they had been able to get the medication they needed after having a conversation with staff at the local GP practice. Healthwatch have since raised the issue of access to medication with the Integrated Care Board which is an ongoing piece of work.
Throughout the visit, veterans shared their experiences of accessing GP appointments and we heard some stories about ongoing experiences with local hospital providers with some good experiences of personalised care and issues with transport to services at Royal Blackburn hospital, due to the rural nature of the Ribble Valley.
It was a great opportunity to continue to work alongside partners like Veterans in Communities, where we hear rich stories that feed into our projects and general engagement to help us improve local services.
We are always looking to hear more from the residents of Lancashire about their experiences. If you have a story you wish to share, please get in contact with us using any of these methods
Telephone: 01524239100
Email: info@healthwatchlancashire.co.uk