Agenda item

Veronica Barry (Executive Director, Healthwatch Oxfordshire) has been invited to present the Healthwatch Oxfordshire Update.

The Committee is invited to consider the Healthwatch Oxfordshire update and NOTE it having raised any questions arising.

Veronica Barry (Executive Director of Healthwatch Oxfordshire) presented the Healthwatch Oxfordshire update.

The Executive Director explained that the breadth of Healthwatch activity was reflected across many of the items already considered by the Committee and emphasised that Healthwatch sought to ensure that the experiences of residents were consistently fed into system decision‑making. She confirmed that written responses had been submitted to both the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust on their respective Quality Accounts, ensuring that patient voice informed those processes.

Healthwatch Oxfordshire had undertaken Enter and View visits to mental health inpatient settings, including wards at the Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, where patient experience aligned with themes discussed earlier in the meeting, particularly in relation to environments, access, and care pathways. Healthwatch Oxfordshire had also contributed to the Committee’s primary care access work, having gathered feedback from a substantial number of residents over the previous year regarding GP access and patient experience. 

The Executive Director of Healthwatch Oxfordshire then outlined recent community research activity, explaining that Healthwatch had increasingly adopted a “community researcher” model in order to reach groups that were typically under‑represented in consultation processes. She described work undertaken with members of the older Chinese community, where a community researcher conducted in‑depth interviews with Cantonese‑speaking residents. This work had highlighted persistent barriers to care, particularly around access to interpreting services, understanding of NHS systems, and navigation of care pathways. It was reported that many residents continued to rely on family members, including children, to interpret healthcare conversations, indicating a continued gap in provision of appropriate language support.

The Committee also heard about partnership work with community organisations, including engagement with African and Caribbean women’s groups to explore maternity experiences. This work built on previous engagement and had contributed to linking local community voices into wider system work, including national reviews. It was explained that further engagement events were planned to bring together community perspectives with system partners, including commissioners and providers.

The Executive Director of Healthwatch Oxfordshire highlighted the development of a community research “how‑to” guide, co‑produced with a wide range of grassroots organisations. She explained that the guide differed from traditional academic‑focused resources, as it was designed to empower communities themselves to undertake research and articulate their experiences. The Committee noted that this represented an example of practical co‑production and capacity‑building within communities.

Members also heard about Healthwatch’s rural outreach work, which had engaged extensively with residents across rural settlements using a combination of face‑to‑face engagement, focus groups and surveys. This work would feed into broader system strategies, including Marmot and population health programmes, and would provide further insight into the experiences of residents in rural areas, including access to services and transport challenges.

Members raised questions regarding the increasing use of artificial intelligence in complaints processes and its impact on provider organisations. It was responded that Healthwatch had been made aware by providers that some patients were now using AI tools to generate complaints. While this had the effect of enabling more people to raise concerns, it had also resulted in more complex and time‑consuming complaint handling processes for providers.

The Committee also discussed how Healthwatch activity linked to wider system work on independent patient voice, noting its relevance to ongoing work by the Health and Wellbeing Board in developing future patient voice arrangements. Members reflected that Healthwatch’s work demonstrated the breadth of ways in which patient voice could be expressed, including surveys, engagement events, complaints, and lived experience contributions.

The Committee NOTED the Healthwatch Oxfordshire update.