HEALTHWATCH INVESTIGATIONS: Developing good practice

Investigating issues and concerns raised by service users, carers, patients and the wider public and getting feedback, is core business for local Healthwatch. This is an extremely challenging role. Local Healthwatch are small organisations who are charged with influencing large organisations and local health systems. In order to be successful local Healthwatch have to provide an analysis of the experiences of the public in a way that is credible and understandable to large organisations who will have much greater analytical and professional expertise and who may feel (rightly or wrongly) that they have a better grasp on what the challenges are and ‘what needs to be done’ than a local Healthwatch! This report summarises some of the thinking and practice that has emerged from work that has been led by Health Together1 and involved Healthwatch Leeds, Healthwatch Wakefield and other local Healthwatch in West Yorkshire - Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees - as well as a briefing session facilitated by Involve Yorkshire and Humber which was attended by a further six Yorkshire and Humber Healthwatch.

http://www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/files/HW_Investigati...