Community Assembly: News and Update

Claire Uwins and Mike Carn, both long standing members of Community Assembly, spoke about their personal involvement with the new Patient Engagement Forum for Herts and West Essex. They shared reasons for being involved, how it feels to be a part of the forum, and reflections on what has been good, and what has been more difficult about it.

Alongside colleagues, Julia Oliveira, Transformation Programme Director for the East and North Herts Trust led an informed presentation about their Outpatient Transformation Programme. After explaining their current position and strategic context, Julia focused on the following priorities:

• the introduction of Patient Initiated Follow up pathways (PIFU)
• the new Patient Engagement Portal (PEP)
• re-designed pathways and streamlined contact centre processes
• a pilot in orthotics which started on 10^th August

Geoff Brown, Chief Executive of Healthwatch Hertfordshire (HwH) presented insightful headlines from three recent HwH research projects.

• The Views and Experiences of People Experiencing the Menopause
• Autistic People’s Experiences of GP Services
• The Cost of Living Report

The Menopause and Autism reports will be presented to the Primary Care Board in September, and the Cost of Living report was published in July this year – find it here. The Cost of Living report item sparked several Community Assembly Members to share relevant local information and updates on the topic.

Sam Tappenden, Development Director for the ENHHCP gave a brief update on Partnership Developments including:

• The new Integrated Heart Failure Service model
• Programmes around priority areas
• Joined up working with districts/boroughs and neighbourhood teams

Sam then facilitated a discussion about ‘Expanding Involvement’ on what is working so far, embedding patient experience and the expansion of patient involvement. He shared a list of opportunities for improvement, and asked for feedback from the group.