Healthwatch Northamptonshire’s report on people’s experiences of services provided by NHFT
Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust (NHFT) delivers over 100 services, many of which are provided out of a hospital setting and in the community. The Trust also provides inpatient care for people with acute mental health problems and people with dementia, as well as clinical care with the two hospices in the county and community rehabilitation. The significant majority of feedback we have received about NHFT services relate to mental health services, particularly community mental health services and child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS).
We heard a range of views about services including a mix of positive and negative feedback from the people we spoke to, which we have taken at face value. Across all the services we heard about, there were some common themes to the feedback:
- Caring inpatient services
- Communication and listening to service users and carers individually and collectively
- Waiting times and staff capacity
- Discharge and joined up working
Recommendations Many of the issues raised in this report, particularly those concerning mental health services, could be addressed by:
- Ensuring a person centred approach that considers all the needs and holistic circumstances of a service user.
- Working across teams, services and organisations and improving channels of communication.
- Linking treatment with prevention to meet the wider wellbeing needs of patients, particularly those with more complex mental health needs.
- Prioritising meaningful patient, service user and carers involvement in changes to individual care and service redesign.
- Future support to the voluntary and community sector both in terms of funding and support to voluntary and community services.
