HW Nottingham and HW Nottinghamshire EPS campaignRuth Rigby, Managing Director, Healthwatch Nottingham

Our Role

The local consumer champion for health and social care to:

• Represent the voice of Nottingham citizens• Gather the experiences of people who use

services• Use this information to provide a fuller

picture of people’s experiences for commissioners, providers and regulatory bodies

• Act as an information hub to help people access health/care services and make informed choices

Context• Pressures on our local Health and Social Care

system• Set to rise - increased number of people with

long term conditions (LTCs) locally, greater call on resources as people age

• High profile system ‘failures’•Nationally - Mid Staffs (Francis Enquiry), Winterbourne View, (Keogh Review), (Berwick Review)•Locally - Autumn Grange, St Andrew’s Lodge, Sherwood Forest NHS FT, Southern Cross

• Funding – reducing funding for social care, pressure from NHS costs

Developing our priorities

• By identifying priority areas based on concerns or issues raised through engagement activities – particularly with seldom heard groups - and other information received from the public

• By looking at the work programmes of partner organisations and gathering the views to support these activities e.g. an NCC strategic review, CCG procurement, the work of Health Scrutiny

• By identifying communities, such as work with specific seldom heard groups, whose views may be under-represented

Why an EPS campaign?

• Feedback from a member of the public

• Concerns from Patient Participation Groups

People have told us.…..• They didn’t understand what they were

signing up for

• There isn’t enough information available about EPS

• They don’t think people know enough about the pros and cons

• They think pharmacies might push people to sign up when it’s not the best option for them

• They are worried about what would happen if their nominated pharmacist is out of stock of their medication

• They don’t know where to go if they have a problem with EPS

What we are going to do

Working with the LPC and NHS England we will:

• Set up a dedicated page on the Healthwatch Nottinghamshire Website

• Provide information for pharmacies to display

• Have regular articles in the LPC newsletter

• Issue joint press releases

• Use one of our regular columns in the local press to talk about EPS

• Send information to GPs and to PPGs

healthwatchnottingham.co.uk 0115 859 9511