To all our lovely volunteers, a massive thank you for everything you have supported us on this year 2023 – 2024.
Volunteers’ Week is an annual celebration of the contribution millions like you make across the UK through volunteering in their communities.
We would like to remind you of the many ways you have worked with us over the past year. Whether it is one hour or one week of time you have contributed, you are all equally valued.
Here are some of the ways that you have helped us this year:
- Project work involving enter & view, and interviewing patients face-to-face about their experiences of a GP surgery, or hospital service.
- Data analysis, creating charts and tables, and producing content for our reports which are sent to providers and commissioners and shared with them the changes service users would like to see.
- Webinars/workshops/conferences – chairing, note-takers, facilitators, help with analysis – you name it, you were involved! These events enable service users to share their experiences with us, with each other (peer-to-peer support), and to directly ask questions of providers and commissioners in a welcoming and encouraging environment.
- Phone and online interviews with service users hearing about their experiences of health and social care services.
- Reviewing websites, phoning out-of-hours to hear voicemail messages and reviewing these accordingly so that the findings can be shared through reports and other means.
- Participants yourselves in many of the projects above, sharing your own experiences and encouraging others to do so.
- Representing Healthwatch in key meetings, local dental committees, mental health, primary care, social care, meetings run by voluntary sector organisations etc. Every time you attend a meeting on behalf of Healthwatch, you are representing service user needs and experiences, and ensuring that patients are at the heart of any decisions that are made at those meetings.
- Helping us to revise our internal policies and supporting us with preparations for our contract retender.
- Proof-reading final project reports.
Examples of projects you have been involved in this past year:
- Outpatients’ deliberative engagement workshops 2023 (NHS Sussex commissioned)
- Primary Care Network/ Patient Participation Group engagement event 2023 (NHS Sussex Commissioned)
- Emotional support during the perinatal experience 2023.
- Research project on pharmacies 2023.
- Women’s Health: Experiences of Cervical Cancer Screening 2023.
- People’s Profile Public Engagement: Parents/Carers of children under 5 years old.
- Reviewed 25 patient leaflets produced by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust on subjects as wide ranging as sepsis to diabetes.
- Enter & View of the Atrium in the Louisa Martindale Building, Emergency Department of the Royal Sussex County Hospital, and local NHS maternity services.
- PLACE visits across two local NHS Trusts.
- Home care checks with service users following hospital discharge.
- Reviewed and helped us update our internal policies and procedures.
- And many more.
“In the last year, over 40 wonderful volunteers have supported our work. You have given your time and expertise and helped us to achieve so much. Healthwatch can never thank you enough for support you have given us.
“In Volunteers Week 2024, I would like to acknowledge and celebrate you, not just for the week, but for all the time you have loyally contributed to Healthwatch. You are all heroes and without you Healthwatch would be unable to deliver effectively for patients and service users. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.”
“The volunteers really care about the people they are supporting and always want to go the extra mile to ensure their needs are met. They continually show their understanding for each individual as well as professionalism, gathering accurate information through the interview process to inform service improvement."
"I am again very grateful to Healthwatch, for their ongoing support with the PLACE assessment process. The input and feedback from volunteers is extremely valuable and is used to aid improvement. I look forward to working with Healthwatch again this year."
Mazzie and Mike, two of our fantastic volunteers, share their volunteering experience:
"I was accepted as a volunteer with Healthwatch Brighton and Hove in May 2019, and enjoyed the training I received and meeting my other volunteer colleagues. This enabled me to be part of the Lay Assessor team, calling on Homecare clients, in their homes, to review with them the care they were receiving. As someone with a background in the NHS, it was a good opportunity for me to utilise that knowledge and understanding. It is also very rewarding to give something back and particular rewarding to spend time with clients who frequently entertained and surprised me.
As Covid arrived, not long after I joined Healthwatch, I was very happy to join the Hospital Discharge initiative, set up with the local hospital, to provide a check in service for people who had recently arrived home from a hospital stay, and ask them how they were and if anything needed to be followed up. Needless to say, this phone call was generally very warmly welcomed. I was able to signpost people to appropriate services or forward queries for action. Such a valuable contact at a difficult time. I continue to be a Lay Assessor and am happy to attend events as a representative, or undertake a support role in any new or one-off project. Volunteering with Healthwatch is both very positive and fulfilling for me."
- Mazzie Sharp, Lay Assessor, Enter & View, and Support volunteer
"Having been the Lead Member for Patient and Public Engagement, for 6 years, with Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group I was keen to use my knowledge to support Healthwatch and its activities across the city. I have also been a carer for my mother who lived at home but also spent many periods of time in various care homes across the city. She also needed to utilise Adult Social Care services therefore it made sense for me to take on this role of a Meeting Representative with the Care Governance Board.
This has been a very rewarding experience and I certainly feel that the voice of patients and carers across the city have really been heard and this has helped to influence the decisions made by this Board. All members of the CGB have been very accepting of the insight I have brought to the debate and reacted in a very positive way taking account of any challenges I raise.
I have also appreciated the support I have been given by the Healthwatch staff in such endeavours and as such would recommend this volunteering opportunity to others."
- Mike Holdgate, Meeting Representative
