Welcome:
Welcome to the Healthwatch Kingston upon Hull Newsletter, we provide regular updates of our activities and enagagements across the city of Hull, aswell as promoting events, activities and important information from partner organisations and local services.
About us:
Healthwatch is the independent consumer champion for people who use health and social care services. Our role is to find out people’s experiences of health and social care services with a view to making sure they are meeting people’s needs, and to suggest or call for improvements where needed.
At Healthwatch, our focus is to ensure that health and social care services work for you and to do this, we need to hear from you. By speaking with us and sharing your experiences, you are empowering and supporting us to improve local services by informing and advising those who provide and commission services what is needed by our local communities.
Any information you share with Healthwatch is kept anonymous, not shared with anyone and used solely to encourage and support change.
Healthwatch Updates
Our Activities
We’ve been extremely busy at Healthwatch Hull since our last newsletter update, we’ve attended multiple health and wellbeing events, volunteered at various community projects, supported partner organisations and charities and continued to engage with the public and local communities.
Our continued public engagement at successful health and wellbeing events included attending Hull CVS 40th Anniversary, 50+ Provider Volunteer Event at Hull Job Centre, and Menopause Hull hosted by Neighbourhood Network, Menopaus’ull Support Network and Hull West and Hessle MP Emma.
Our ongoing presence at significant forums, meetings and workshops has enabled us to continue to raise the profile of Healthwatch Hull and our vital role in the health and social care services sector and local communities. Addressing serious health issues effecting the local population, centred more recently towards the cost of living crisis. These issues raised by the people of Hull and local communities will reflect our future engagement and activities, addressing the increased cost of living which is currently effecting many across both Hull and the rest of the country.
Keep up to date with our activities, the latest news and developments at Healthwatch Hull by following us across our social media platforms.
Your experiences matter
In October, Healthwatch found that 35% of experiences we collected related to GP Surgeries, with ‘Communication between staff/providers and patients‘ being the most common issue identified.
We have shared our findings with partners and local providers, assisting them in understanding where improvements may be made.
Want to make a complaint?
In October, the service assisted 7 new complaints; provided support towards 60 ongoing cases and closed 6 cases.
Visit our NHS Complaints page for more information.
How we can help
Healthwatch provides information and advice to help you get the most of your local health and social care services.
From the enquiries we received in August, we:
Provided 75% with information and advice
Supported 12.5% by contacting GP’s on their behalf
Escalated 6.25% to partner organisations
From the enquiries we received in September, we:
Provided 28.5% with information and advice
Supported 42.8% by contacting GP’s on their behalf
Let's talk about menopause
Following our successful pre-engagement menopause experience survey, in which we received a total of 322 responses and experiences. We have continued our engagement with networks across the city helping improve access to support and promoting services, leading towards menopause awareness month and beyond.
We recognise the importance of readily available local support and information highlighted within our pre-engagement survey, ensuring we focus on the real local issues.
Events & Engagement
Since our last newsletter we have continued providing support to the general public, community groups, health organisations, charities and our partners across the city of Hull.
Attending events and meetings, raising the public’s awareness of the help and support Healthwatch offer and the important role Healthwatch provide, by highlighting the public’s experiences using local health and social care services.
We have attended numerous high-profile local events, including this year’s Driffield Agricultural Show representing both Healthwatch Kingston upon Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire teams. We have maintained regular contact with local community groups, supporting their programs, attending numerous housing association summer fayres and more recently the University of Hulls Students Unions fresher’s volunteer fair.
Future Events
We’re extremely excited to be joining the Neighbourhood Network Hull, who alongside Hull West and Hessle Member of Parliament Emma Hardy and her team, have organised a fantastic health and wellbeing event focused on supporting women through the menopause during Menopause Awareness month.
The event will showcase a vast array of work shops and demonstrations such as yoga, craft classes, massage and beauty, self-help support, exercise classes, providing both mental and physical health support.
Located on the ground floor of Princes Quay Shopping Centre in Hull, on Saturday 22nd October, the event is free to attend and will include speakers and local organisations sharing information and support.
Partner Promotions
To support local communities access and input into local services, we collect information about local campaigns and events to share with you.
If you are a part of a group or service and want to have any communications included in our newsletters, please let us know using the button below.
World Mental Health Day
Mental health problems exist in our lives, families, workplaces and communities, impacting everyone. That’s why the World Health Organisation promotes the importance of World Mental Health Day, which for over 70 years has been working to make sure mental health is treated on par with physical health.
World Mental Health Day is a great opportunity to talk about mental health in general, understanding the importance of looking after our mental health and seeking help if you’re struggling.
Mind Hull and East Yorkshire Awareness Campaign
Hull and East Yorkshire Mind have partnered with Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership and East Riding of Yorkshire Council on a brand new campaign to raise awareness about suicide prevention, coinciding with suicide prevention and World Mental Health Day.
The campaign aims to educate local people on suicide prevention, dispelling common myths around suicide and encouraging individuals to take action and check in on their friends, family members, colleagues or strangers. HEY Mind have also published a series of stories highlighting some common risk factors which may lead to someone feeling suicidal, which includes the support path that they took to improve their mental health.
If you, a loved one or someone you care about is struggling with mental health issues, help really is just a phone call away.
Call: 116 123 for free
Whatever you’re going through, a Samaritan will face it with you. We’re here 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Call: 0800 068 4141
Are you, or is a young person you know, not coping with life? For confidential suicide prevention advice contact HOPELINEUK. Open 9am to midnight every day.
Call: 0800 58 58 58
CALM’s helpline and livechat are open from 5pm to midnight everyday. 365 days a year.
Children’s Neurodiversity Service: Update
The Children’s Neurodiversity Service’s front door requests are currently being paused for an initial period of 8 weeks as of Monday 22nd August 2022. This temporary change will not affect the ability to directly access services which make up the Neurodiversity Service, including Autism, ADHD, Learning Disability, Sensory and Sleep services.
Launched in March 2022 as a proof of-concept model, the model allows for test and review of a new service in order for changes to be made over time to improve outcomes for children, young people and service user experience.
The review of the service included monitoring the number of requests for support, which to date has received over 1,300 requests, exceeding service expectations. Due to the large number of requests many young people, parents and carers are waiting longer for a planned response.
NHS Targeted Lung Health Check Programme
Hull residents aged 55 to 74 who currently smoke or used to smoke and are registered with a Hull GP will be offered an NHS Lung Health Check. Ran by specially-trained nurses, the invitational health check can reassure you that your lungs are healthy, or help find problems early – often before you notice anything is wrong. If a lung issue is found early, treatment could potentially be simpler and more successful.
Since the programme began in the city in January 2020, the team have carried out an impressive 10,000 assessments and 7,000 scans.
Know Your Numbers
2022 marks the 22nd anniversary of Know Your Numbers Week, the UK’s biggest blood pressure testing awareness event. Encouraging the nation to measure their blood pressure in the comfort of their own home, using a simple and reliable blood pressure monitor.
Home blood pressure monitoring is an effective and inexpensive way to keep blood pressure under control, allowing you the opportunity to take control of your health. Whilst also taking the pressure off the NHS at the same time, as there’s no need to visit your GP, practice nurse, or pharmacist in person.
Hull Food Partnership
With the collective aim of producing sustainable, healthy, affordable food a reality for everyone, Hull Food Partnership continues to bring together organisations, businesses and individuals from across Hull, its suburbs and surrounding areas.
The partnership works collaboratively on ambitious but fun, food projects which centre around good quality food.
Hull Food Partnership is hosted by Rooted in Hull, an innovative urban farm project located in the Drypool area of the city centre. With the Hull community at its core, the project is a space for growing, sharing and learning about food.
The long term vision is to provide fresh vegetables for families’ that are struggling or just about managing to afford to eat good quality, fresh food.
Christmas Jumper Appeal
For the last few years Hull City Council have appealed for unwanted children’s Christmas jumpers to help divert textiles from Hull’s wheelie bins and to help local families in the run up to Christmas. They know Christmas is an added financial pressure in these times and with the popular Christmas Jumper days they wanted to help make sure all children can take part in the celebrations.
In previous years, they have collected around 60 jumpers and taken them to schools in the Love Your Street priority areas and this year, with rising costs across the board, we would like to make this our biggest collection yet.
Beercocks, the estate agents and now Hull CVS have offered to be a collection point for the Christmas Jumpers.
The National ‘Save the Children’ Christmas Jumper day is planned for Thursday 8th December 2022, Hull City Council will be looking at closing collections on the 30th November to ensure they can sort and distribute in time.
If you wish to donate your Christmas Jumper at Hull CVS do so at;
The Strand, 75 Beverley Road, Hull between 10am – 4pm Monday to Friday.
Newsletter Feedback
Your feedback on our Newsletters will help Healthwatch understand what information we’re currently providing to you is beneficial, if information provided could be improved or if there is anything we are not currently providing which you feel is beneficial to you and our other audience members.