Authorised Representatives (Enter & View / Service Visits)
Our Authorised Representatives visit services such as hospitals, GP surgery’s and care homes to see and hear about the nature and quality of services.
They observe the services in operation and speak to people using the service, their carers and relatives to find out more about their experiences and views. They report their findings to providers, regulators, the local authority, NHS commissioners and quality assurers, the public, Healthwatch England and other relevant partners.
Our Lead Authorised Representatives at Healthwatch West Sussex are Sue Morton and Alan Packham.
Sue Morton
Sue has been a volunteer with Healthwatch since its inception in 2013, having been a volunteer for the West Sussex Local Involvement Network before that. Sue brings a wealth of knowledge and experience of working in the NHS as a nurse, in frontline and managerial roles and is also a Public Governor with a local NHS Trusts.
Alan Packham
Alan has been a volunteer with Healthwatch for around 5 years and was introduced to us when we worked together on the NHS annual PLACE assessment programme (Patient Led Assessment of the Clinical Environment). As well as his Authorised Representative role with us, Alan was and still is a PLACE volunteer with a local NHS Trust and has extensive experience of environmental audits in clinical services.
Liaison Representatives
Our Liaison Representatives attend meetings, workshops, groups and forums on a regular basis as the main point of contact for Healthwatch West Sussex.
The liaison role enables us to be present and involved in conversations across our local health and care system. We are able to hear valuable insight, feed in local voices and views as well as influence work programmes and decision making processes.
Meet some of our Liaison Representatives – Patrick Brady, Jane Collins, Philip Watts
Patrick Brady
Patrick joined us after he retired from a long career working in and with the NHS. Patrick has supported our work in a number of ways. One of Patrick’s roles is the Queen Victoria Hospital Liaison Representative.
For this role, Patrick is our representative on the Queen Victoria Hospital Patient Experience Committee and attends quarterly meetings hosted by the Trust. Patrick checks the agenda in advance of the meetings and flags anything that we might want to contribute to. He is then able to attend the meetings and feed in any updates or insight from Healthwatch and shares back with the Healthwatch team any key points and useful information that he has been able to pick up from the meeting.
Jane Collins
Jane is our Maternity and Perinatal Liaison Representative and, since joining us Jane been our main link with the West Sussex Maternity services.
Jane has a background of working in Primary Care and has a good knowledge of NHS systems and processes. Jane’s personal interest in maternity services prompted her to pick up this role when it became available and Jane attends meetings regularly to feed in Healthwatch insight and share back with our team the progress, future plans and discussions that take place at the meetings.
Philip Watts
Philip Watts supports a number of our work activities. Philip’s main role with us is the South East Coast Ambulance Trust (SECAmb) Liaison Representative.
As our ambulance trust provides a service across the whole region, this Liaison Representative role is the liaison link between SECAmb and all the Local Healthwatch across the region – Kent & Medway, Surrey, East Sussex, Brighton & Hove and West Sussex.
Philip attends the SECAmb Patient Experience Committee to feed in Healthwatch insight and share back with the Healthwatch teams any updates and key points from the meetings.
Philip communicates with all the Local Healthwatch teams regularly to collect and collate any insight and personal experiences that the teams have heard from local people, relating to services delivered by SECAmb – 111 / 999 / Emergency Ambulance Response.
Philip then produces a report which is shared with SECAmb and this is discussed at the quarterly Regional Healthwatch Managers Meetings – which Philip attends.