Healthwatch Birmingham connects with local hospital radio to encourage more patient feedback
Healthwatch Birmingham is working with Birmingham Hospital Broadcast Network (BHBN) to raise awareness of our role supporting patients and the public to share their health and social care experiences.
In October Healthwatch Birmingham’s Andy Cave, Chief Executive Officer and Jane Upton, Head of Evidence were both interviewed by Donna Joseph, BHBN DJ, at their studios at the old Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Within the interview, we discussed how Healthwatch Birmingham listens and gathers feedback from patients and the public about local health and social care, and how we make their views known with those who provide and commission those services.
BHBN is a volunteer led hospital radio station broadcasting to 6 hospitals in Birmingham and Solihull, including Birmingham Women’s Hospital, Heartlands, Good Hope, City Hospital, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Solihull Hospital. Listeners can tune in online, with hospital patients being able to listen to BHBN through their bedside media units. The feature will be aired on BHBN’s Words and Music Programme on Wednesday 14th December 2016.
The interview gave us opportunity to highlight how Healthwatch Birmingham is using the feedback we receive, and what impact is being made through our investigations. We discussed important issues for patients and the public, like the difficulty some people face trying to find the right service for them, or how to raise a complaint about NHS or social care services. We shared details about our Information and Signposting line, which is guiding people to access that information and signposting them to organisations who can support them.
Andy Cave stated: “Healthwatch Birmingham really values the opportunity to work with BHBN. Their passionate and skilled volunteers are doing great work to deliver a truly people-centred service. We are delighted to be raising awareness with patients and members of the public tuning in.
“With a population of 1.2 million people, it is important our communications activities use a range of different methods to connect with people in the city who are accessing information in different ways. This also gives us a unique opportunity to raise awareness with patients while they are actually receiving care.
“We want more people to be aware of the simple ways they can have their say about health and social care. It is key to continue highlighting our role as an independent consumer champion, and that people can feedback to us at any time.
BHBN’s listeners are patients, or friends and family of patients, accessing treatment in hospitals right now. Their feedback can influence the improvement of services for the benefit of all users.
It is fantastic to feature through BHBN and work together to encourage more people to tell us about the quality of care they are receiving.”
Linking with hospital radio is a part of Healthwatch Birmingham’s wider communications and engagement plans to connect with as many citizens in the city as possible.
Donna Joseph, BHBN DJ, who led the interview stated: “It was an absolute pleasure to have Andy Cave and Jane Upton in to meet us at our BHBN studios. On average we have 1000 patient listeners to BHBN per week as well as a growing online audience. These figures are growing rapidly especially since the launch or our new magazine last month so we’re very pleased to be able to bring awareness to such a great service. Our hope is that BHBN will work further with Healthwatch Birmingham to create a feature that will be played on a regular basis during our popular automated programming to further increase awareness.”
Relevant information
- Healthwatch Birmingham is also providing information to patients through BHBN’s newly launched magazine, which is shared with patients within hospitals across Birmingham.
- We recently carried out an awareness campaign within 200 buses in Birmingham, with a poster providing information about the different ways people can share their experiences about health and social care with us. Read the campaign overview here