University to support Healthwatch Northamptonshire, launching in April 2013

Launching in April as part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, Healthwatch will exist in two distinct forms – a local Healthwatch, and Healthwatch England which at a national level will provide leadership and guidance.

Commissioned by Northamptonshire County Council, Healthwatch Northamptonshire will be run as a social enterprise jointly between the two organisations. Healthwatch Northamptonshire aims to speak for patients rather than services, to ensure everyone gets the best they can from their local healthcare provision. Everyone within Northamptonshire has an equal right to be involved with Healthwatch, and individual opinions will be used to feed into both local services and the national healthcare agenda.

Run as an independent body, Healthwatch Northamptonshire aims to facilitate change. The project will signpost local people to information about healthcare in Northamptonshire, and cover GPs, hospitals, council social care services, opticians, dentists, care homes, home care and pharmacists.

An independent chair of the new Healthwatch Northamptonshire board will be announced shortly, and the project will be launched nationally on April 11, and locally on April 24.

What is Healthwatch Northamptonshire?

Healthwatch Northamptonshire will be a new consumer champion for everyone who uses local health and social care services in our county. It will help get people’s views heard, in order to ensure that services are designed around the needs of people who use them.

What will Healthwatch Northamptonshire do?

Healthwatch Northamptonshire will gather the opinions of people within Northamptonshire, and use their views to improve health and social care services. Healthwatch Northamptonshire will signpost people to information, and explain what to do when things go wrong.

Healthwatch Northamptonshire: our principles

Healthwatch Northamptonshire will be an independent organisation, ran as a social enterprise, with support from Northampton Volunteering Centre and The University of Northampton. It is Northampton County Council’s responsibility to ensure Healthwatch Northamptonshire is set up and run effectively.

• We’ll ensure that everyone can have their say
• We will be open and honest, credible and trustworthy
• We’ll represent the views of everyone, from all diverse communities
• We’ll help people make informed choices about their healthcare services.

For more details about Healthwatch, visit the national website.