‘You Said – We Did’ December 2024

Our activity in December 2024 included:

You Said:

We heard from an individual struggling with their mental health, who found accessing local services difficult and was unable to get a face-to-face appointment with their GP.

We Did:

We provided details of a range of support services including Health in Mind and Samaritans, as well as the Sussex Mental Healthline. We also provided information on using digital platforms to request contact from their GP.

You Said:

We heard from a carer concerned that equipment provided by Adult Social Care may have been installed incorrectly or been faulty and didn’t know what to do.

We Did:

We provided contact details for the Adult Social Care and Health Complaints Team and Health and Social Care Connect to enable them to report a safety concern. We also provided a complaints advice leaflet produced by ESCC.

You Said:

We heard from an individual who wanted to complain about End-of-Life Care services after their friend with a terminal diagnosis had passed away in A&E.

We Did:

We provided guidance from Hospice UK about making a complaint about End-of-Life care, and also shared this experience with NHS Sussex to highlight a potential lack of joined up care for palliative patients.

You Said:

We heard from an individual who felt there was a lack of understanding by their GP and practice staff regarding Post Traumatic Stress Disorder/ trauma and felt this caused a barrier to accessing services

We Did:

We shared the patient’s experience with NHS Sussex. We highlighted the need for primary care and GP practice staff to receive training on identifying and supporting patients who have experienced trauma.

Our Contributions and Interventions

• As part of our work offering information and signposting on health and care to ‘less heard’ people in East Sussex, we engaged with the Seaview Project in Hastings to understand their work supporting vulnerable people. This will inform opportunities to engage those with complex lives, hear their experiences and foster relationships with local communities in advance of our Listening Tour visiting Hastings in 2025.
• We highlighted concerns about patient-facing communications supporting a campaign on hospital discharge to staff at NHS Sussex. We highlighted how they may be perceived as negative and generate anxiety, rather than providing re-assurance and supporting patients to make effective decisions. We offered alternative suggestions to resolve these issues and committed to support health and care partners in providing information on discharge to patients and the public.
• This month we met with NHS England (NHSE) to raise awareness of our information and signposting support to residents in Lewes Prison over recent months and to understand the role NHSE plays in gathering and responding to feedback on healthcare in Prison settings. We shared feedback headlines and explored how patient experiences could be relayed to NHS, Adult Social Care and other partners.
• We met representatives of NHS Sussex and Community Pharmacy to discuss feedback we’d received about operating hours, temporary closures and a lack of medication availability. We are promoting the 2024 Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment to help colleagues understand pharmacy ‘need’ locally and developing/sharing information that supports patients and the public to understand what pharmacies offer and how and when to access them.

Tell us your experiences of local health and care services

We always want to hear the experiences of local people when they use health and care services.

You can share your experience by leaving a review on our Feedback Centre at any time and tell us how things were for you. What was good and what could be improved?

You can also share your experience or seek further support with health and care enquiries from our Information & Signposting service via:

Email: Enquiries@healthwatcheastsussex.co.uk

Telephone: 0333 101 4007 Monday – Friday (10am-2pm)