What we do
Healthwatch Lancashire gathers the views and experiences of the public. We do this in a range of ways, both in person and online.
Our regular activities include:
Enter & View
Healthwatch Lancashire’s innovative programme of ‘Enter & View’ delivers a ‘mum’s test’ approach, gathering views of patients, relatives and staff to provide an answer to the question: ‘Would you want your loved ones to be cared for in this service?’
‘Enter and View’ is the opportunity for our authorised Healthwatch Lancashire representatives to go into health and social care premises to collect the views of patients, relatives and staff at the point of service delivery and observe the nature and quality of services.
Pop-ups
Members of the Healthwatch Lancashire team host regular pop-up events across the county. This could be a pop-up in a town centre or a hub space within the community. This is a chance for members of the public to meet the team, hear about the work we’re doing, share views and experiences of health and social care services in Lancashire and receive signposting information to local support.
Public Engagement Days
The Healthwatch Lancashire team visit health and social care services to speak to people and listen to their experiences.
We gather feedback from local people about services in order to understand people’s experiences on a particular day and to use the information we receive to influence service improvement.
Mystery Shopping
Healthwatch Lancashire staff and volunteers visit health and care providers anonymously, acting as though they are using the service.
This enables the mystery shoppers to assess how well the providers perform, in terms of customer service and information provision. Mystery shoppers complete questionnaires after each visit, recording their findings.
PLACE Assessments
Good environments matter but don’t just happen. Patient-led Assessments of the Care Environment (PLACE) help hospital organisations understand how well they are meeting the needs of their patients and identify where improvements can be made.
Healthwatch Lancashire support Lancashire’s hospital trusts by assessing the service and feedback is fed back to the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC); the organisation responsible for ensuring all health settings conduct the assessments.
PLACE assessments are undertaken annually across all hospitals, hospices and independent treatment centres proving NHS funded care across the UK.
Our funding
The funding for Healthwatch comes from the Department of Health, which is passed on to local authorities to commission local Healthwatch.