Community leaders call for action over health and social care services

Difficulties getting appointments at GP and dental surgeries and support for elderly residents being discharged from hospital were among the issues raised when the boss of a health watchdog visited a South Staffordshire Council meeting on Tuesday.

Baz Tameez, manager of Healthwatch Staffordshire, told the Wellbeing Select Committee that the independent group was there to act as a “critical friend” to the county’s health and social care services as well as listening to concerns raised by patients, residents and organisations. He also revealed the main issues currently being raised in Staffordshire.

He said: “The number one reason we are getting calls at the moment is dentistry and lack of NHS appointments. In social care we have had feedback on social care assessments where families and individuals have been waiting for weeks.

“Within the NHS we are seeing delays in ambulance times; people are ringing up and it’s taking a few hours for ambulances to get there. Other people are waiting outside hospitals in ambulances, delaying those ambulances from going out to other emergency calls.

“There are still issues around hospital discharges. But the feedback we are getting once people are in hospital and on the treatment they are receiving seems to be positive.”

Councillors asked what Healthwatch Staffordshire could do to improve services for the district’s residents.

Councillor Penny Allen spoke of a previous nationally commended project at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital, which worked with Age Concern to provide a fortnight’s after-care for patients being discharged, which has now ended. She added that one in four teenagers are currently waiting for counselling services in the wake of the Covid pandemic and other issues.

Councillor Janet Johnson said: “South Staffordshire always seems to be left out because we don’t have a hospital – we have to go to New Cross, Walsall, Stoke or Dudley. We have elderly people come out of hospital without care in place because they are across the border.

“The reason we have got delays with ambulances is because we can’t get a doctor to see us – you try and get a doctor’s appointment and it is an absolute nightmare. A lot of people don’t get the help they need.

“I do feel in South Staffordshire we are left out in the dark and nobody cares about us. We are the poor relations and always have been.

“If you can push this forward so South Staffordshire gets a bit more help with social care that would be tremendous. We managed to lobby to get a breast screening unit here so people didn’t have to go across the border; that was something we achieved but everything else seems to have fallen by the wayside.”

Councillor Meg Barrow asked: “How much power do you have as a group? I would like to think this group has power.

“I was a social worker for 40 years and I would like to know how this group is going to change the way social care works. We had wonderful services in the past, reablement working collectively with health.

“I have been retired six years and things have just deteriorated. The group needs to be down here listening to the people, that’s the first step.

“Listen to us and we will tell you what’s wrong – no-one ever listens. I know it is a big ask but until these groups listen to people on the ground it’s never going to change.”