Healthwatch East Sussex share their Rye Listening Tour findings with the East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board

On the 5^th March, our Executive Director, Veronica Kirwan and Communications Officer, Alexandra Hawkins presented our 2023 Rye Listening Tour Report at the East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board.

This was an opportunity to share what residents of Rye and the surrounding villages told us during the tour with local health and care decision makers.

We provided an overview of our engagement activity including our key findings, recommendations, some of the things that have happened since the tour and the next steps.

We summarised what residents of the area thought was working well within their local health and care services, as well as where they thought improvements could be made. This included topics such as:

• the impact the current public transport system was having on people getting to services and appointments
• appreciation for the responsiveness of services at the Conquest Hospital
• the lack of outreach services being available to people in Rural Rother

Following our presentation members of the board were able to comment and ask questions.

The feedback and responses we received included:

1. Support for our recommendation to East Sussex County Council, to ensure the East Sussex Local Transport Plan for 2024-2050 appropriately considers the location and access of health and care services and limited transport provision, to be considered from a county wide perspective.
2. A request for the report to be shared at the East Sussex Health and Care System Partnership Board, so that our findings and recommendations can be shared more widely.
3. Recognition of our findings from Camber that primary care was inaccessible and for approaches to be designed to get services back into more isolated areas and communities.

Rye Listening Tour: what next?

Over the next few months, we will continue to share our findings and recommendations form the Listening Tour with stakeholders across East Sussex.

We will also continue to follow up on our recommendations, collaborating with health, care and voluntary sector colleagues to make improvements to services.

You can read our full Listening Tour Report pack over on our Reports Hub here. The pack includes:

• A Headlines Report
• An Easy Read overview
• Our Engagement Activity Report
• An Enter and View Report, from visits to 19 care homes across Rye and Rural Rother
• A Mystery Shop Report, from 6 of Rye’s GP Surgery websites

What is the East Sussex Health and Wellbeing Board?

The Health and Wellbeing Board  is committed to improving health and wellbeing across East Sussex, especially for people, places and communities who currently have the worst health outcomes. It will make sure there is a shared and comprehensive understanding of local health and wellbeing needs, and a clear strategy to meet them.

Members of the board includes representation from all bodies in East Sussex with major responsibilities for commissioning and providing health services, public health and social care, including local councilors, representatives from Adult Social Care, NHS Sussex, Childrens Services, Public Health and Healthwatch East Sussex’ Executive Director.

Presenting at the Board gives us as Healthwatch the opportunity to share what people are telling us about their experiences of health and care with key decision makers.

Share your experience with us

If you would like to share your experiences of health or social care with us, you can leave a review on our Feedback Centre, or contact our Information and Signposting service on 0333 101 4007 or email enquiries@healthwatcheastsussex.co.uk .