Agenda item

Chair of HealthWatch Oldham to report

The Chair introduced Mr Tamoor Tariq, the Manager of Healthwatch Oldham, who presented their Annual Report 2021/22. The report highlighted key milestones that had been achieved in the year and looked forward to new challenges that the organisation would face in the future.

2021/22 had been another year which, for Healthwatch Oldham had been significantly impacted by Covid-19. Healthwatch Oldham staff have had to adapt – continuing to provide the Healthwatch service by working from home and by managing the move to their new base, at Medtia Place, on Union Street, Oldham. Despite these ongoing challenges, Healthwatch has continued to listen to the local community to make sure their voices are heard and acted on. An example of this is their Greater Manchester Dental Report – a supplemental report was issued in August 2021. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people across Greater Manchester were telling their local Healthwatch groups that they were experiencing difficulties accessing NHS dental services. Across Greater Manchester, local Healthwatch organisations experienced a six-fold increase in enquiries regarding NHS dentistry and nearly 98% of these enquiries raised issues of accessibility. Oldham’s Healthwatch continued to consult with the Oldham public, trying hard to reach out to communities that were not heard as often as others.

By conducting a bi-monthly survey called the Healthwatch Oldham 100, Healthwatch continued to obtain views from local people on a range of subjects. The findings from these surveys heled them to identify trends within service delivery and provide information to guide them on areas to examine further. Healthwatch were able to run People’s Choice Awards for the second year running, to celebrate the hard work, that people throughout all health and social care services, delivered to the residents of Oldham.

Healthwatch had published their report looking into people's experiences of accessing services whilst living with cancer during COVID-19 and had acted on feedback, to drive change to make a difference to people’s experiences. Towards the end of 2021 the organisation had had the opportunity to work in partnership with the Oldham Safeguarding Adults Team to produce a Wheelchair Users - Understanding How Accessibility Works for You Report. This was a survey that was designed to be a starting point to highlight and understand peoples' experiences of accessibility when they have a physical disability.

All the reports mentioned above were available for the public to view on the Healthwatch website. The Committee were advised that none of the work detailed in the report would be possible without the dedication of their staff and volunteers.

Members of the Committee considered the Healthwatch annual report in detail and requested that details of outcomes be presented to meetings of this Committee for consideration.

The Manager of Healthwatch Oldham stated that in other local authorities, across Greater Manchester, local Healthwatch representatives received a standing invite to attend meetings of their local council’s Health Scrutiny Committee (or equivalent body).  

Resolved:

1.    That Healthwatch Oldham’s Annual Report 2021/22 be noted.

2.    That the Manager of Healthwatch Oldham be requested to submit details of Healthwatch’s activities in the Borough to future meetings of the Committee, for Member’s consideration.

3.    That Mr Tamoor Tariq, Manager of Healthwatch Oldham be added to the Committee’s distribution list and that he receives invitations to attend all future meetings of the Health Scrutiny Committee.