Experience of care week

NHS staff, patients, their families and carers are to celebrate the work to improve their experiences of care across health and social care services in Wokingham Borough during Experience of Care week 2018.

The celebration week, from April 23-37, will put experience of care in the spotlight and give people the opportunity to share and celebrate work going on locally to better improve their experiences of health and care services.

Jim Stockley, Healthwatch Chair said: “Many of the Wokingham people that we speak to, tell us that they value the opportunity to provide feedback to local services.

“Healthwatch uses this information to enhance services.

“We hope our participation in Experience of Care Week highlights the work we do to make patients’ experiences as positive as possible.

There’s a book and subsequent TED talk by Simon Sinek called Start with Why.

Why is the experience of care so important? Why should people feedback about their experiences? Quite simply feedback enables improvement and a positive experience raise our endorphins.

The receptionist at the GP surgery who chats to the patient waiting to go in for their review appointment may lift their spirits putting them at ease, or the porter who gently places a hand on the patient’s shoulder as he wheels them off for a scan, sensing the anxiety they are holding within, may be a powerful action at a worrying time.

These thoughtful interventions create sparks of connection, positive experiences.

Connecting

Focusing on connecting and building relationships between staff groups, and between staff and patients increases feelings of happiness; the emotional and physical benefits of either receiving or working within a great service make us feel good or better, even in the most distressing of times.

Across most communities, we all live complicated lives and creating a positive experience, either of care interactions or in the work environment has a ripple effect into other aspects of our lives.

So next week there’ll be plenty of online activities and physical events to spread ideas about how people are working to improve experiences of care for and with patients, families, carers and staff, everyday across all our services.

I encourage you all to share how you are improving experiences of care across the health and care sectors with Healthwatch.

You can join in the conversation on twitter, using the hashtag #ExpofCare so we can all inspire each other.

Let Healthwatch know your views. Get in touch:

Phone: 0118 418 1 418

Website: www.healthwatchwokingham.co.uk

App: Speak Up Wokingham (Free to download from Apple or Google Play)

E-Mail: enquiries@healthwatchwokingham.co.uk Facebook: @healthwatchwokingham

Twitter: @HWWokingham