Government's Review of Patient Safety: what it means for Healthwatch Milton Keynes
What is the Dash Review?
The Dash Review looks at six specific organisations that were established to ensure patient safety. The Review also looks at the wider landscape of organisations influencing quality of care. The six organisations are:
- Care Quality Commission (CQC)
- Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB)
- Patient Safety Commissioner
- National Guardian’s Office
- Healthwatch England and Local Healthwatch - including Healthwatch Milton Keynes.
The Review looks at whether there are overlaps and gaps in functions across organisations, and make recommendations about the future roles of these organisations.
What does it say about Healthwatch?
The Dash Review is a long read. To help, we've included the sections that specifically relate to local Healthwatch:
"Healthwatch, while not solely a patient safety organisation, plays a crucial role in promoting patient safety by amplifying patient voices. Since 2013, Healthwatch has made a significant impact, aiding over a million people annually to voice their concerns and access advice.
The statutory functions of Local Healthwatch relating to healthcare should be combined with the involvement and engagement functions of ICBs to listen to and promote the needs of service users. This should incorporate PPGs and patient or user engagement teams in provider organisations. This will:
- ensure greater clarity and improved effectiveness in bringing wider patient, user and community inputs into care planning
- support clearer accountability from all organisations within an ICS to their local populations
- Local patient and user engagement teams would be supported by the new patient experience directorate within DHSC.
The statutory functions of Local Healthwatch relating to social care (a very small proportion of the work of Local Healthwatch) should be transferred to local authorities in order to improve the commissioning of social care. The combined functions should:
- provide insights into the work of ICBs and local authorities (as commissioners), as well as strategic planning more widely
- support the co-design of services
- continue to be driven by the needs of local communities, operating locally at place level, while ensuring benefits of scale by influencing across an ICS-wide footprint."
The current obligation for Local Healthwatch to raise concerns about quality of care with CQC and ensure patient, user and community input into strategy and plans should change. There should instead be an obligation for ICBs (for healthcare) and local authorities (for social care) to be responsible for:
- listening to communities and users
- ensuring strategies and plans take into account patient, user and community input."
Recognising the impact of local Healthwatch
We are one of just four local Healthwatch that are specifically mentioned in the Dash Review, for the impact our work has had locally:
"Healthwatch Milton Keynes did work on mental health inpatient wards. Its work led to improvements in care, discharge and safety for women on a mental health inpatient unit, which includes women with learning disabilities."
What does this mean for Healthwatch Milton Keynes?
In response to the review, the Government has now said it will change the law to:
1. Transfer the work of Healthwatch England to the Department of Health and Social Care.
2. Transfer the work of local Healthwatch services to the NHS and local authorities.
This means that, until new legislation is passed, we will continue doing what we have always done. We are still here, open, and working for you.
We are continuing to:
1. Listen to your experiences of health and social care.
2. Share what we hear with those in power to help improve services.
3. Provide advice and information to help you find the support you need.
