What’s on in York: Chapelfields Community Hub @ Sanderson House each Thursday

“On line” health checks launched in York

Health and well-being team

A new wellbeing service for York residents will launches today with the aim of helping people live happier, healthier and more active lives.

The YorWellbeing service is led by City of York Council’s public health team and seeks to bring all the healthy living services together giving residents access to advice and support on healthy living.

As the new service launches residents are being encouraged to have a free health check online at www.yorwellbeing.org.uk. The health checks aim to tell people about their risk of preventable health conditions, help them learn about how lifestyle can influence risk and offer advice to live a healthier lifestyle.

People unable to go online are able to call the team on 01904 553377 for support and advice.

Those found to be at increased risk following the online assessment will be signposted to advice and, if eligible, will be offered a one to one appointment with the YorWellbeing team who can offer them personalised advice to help them live a healthier life.

There are many things that affect how healthy and well a person is and as well as the health check offer, working with communities the YorWellbeing service will:

provide advice and support on lifestyle factors such as healthy eating, exercise, alcohol and smoking
encourage positive lifestyle and behaviour changes
work to improve the health and wellbeing of York residents
work to reduce health inequalities across the city.

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Healthwatch York under review by York Council

The Healthwatch organisation will be reporting to a York Council meeting on Wednesday about their role.

The report comes a few months after the local NHS Vale of York CCG asked the organisation to leave the health bodies governing board.

This led some to wonder whether the “voice of patients” was being properly heeded by the health commissioning body.

Other wondered whether Healthwatch had sufficient gravitas to be effective?

No doubt more will become clearer on Wednesday

The latest contract for Healthwatch was issued by the York Council as recently as April. The contracts value is £575,000 over 5 years. It was let via York CVS

The contract states, “Healthwatch York is for anyone who uses or who wishes to use adult and children’s health, social care and public health services in York – or anyone who cares for or represents individuals who have access to health, social care and public health services in York.

Healthwatch York has a duty to assist local health, social care and public health commissioners and providers, and other community stakeholders, by advising on and helping design engagement activity, and by providing feedback, research and information on local people’s views and experiences of health, social care and public health, in order to drive up standards of service provision.

Healthwatch York must also be able to signpost local people with any complaints they may wish to progress in relation to NHS service provision to the York Independent NHS Complaints Advocacy Service which has been procured by the Council under a separate contract with a provider (in a simultaneous procurement exercise) expressly for these purposes”.

Many eyes are on NHS performance these days.

Healthwatch contract

One area for improvement would involve Healthwatch pulling together each month some key performance stats. They are already available but are difficult for the average resident to find. Area to be covered might include:

A & E speed and quality
Ambulance speed and quality
Waiting times
Delayed discharges
GP patient volumes and appointment waiting times
NHS dentists waiting lists

Probe into NHS service quality in York

York Councillors will be given an insight into the several problems faced by the NHS in York over the winter period.

They will be told that the number of patients increased with GP to hospital referrals up by as much as 19%.

NHS managers say that nationally it was one of the most challenging winters with the “lowest national performance since reporting began in 2004”.

There was a “surge pressure” from Christmas Day to the New Year (footfall increase of 14% +522; ambulance increase 9% +123, compared to same period in 2015 -16).

Staff sickness, in particular on bank holidays, limited the options for additional cover

Emergency Care Standards (4 hour waits) targets in A & E were not met. They hit a record low point in January but performance had improved by March.

Hospital report on A & E performance

Lack of hospital beds continues to be blamed on delayed discharges (bed blocking) with over 5000 bed days being lost.

The report is bound to fuel demands for higher investment in NHS services. It has emerged as a key issue in the current General Election campaign

What’s on in York: Tai Chi for Health-Diabetes from 15th May

York Council takes action to ease debt risk for poorer families

The York Council has agreed to pay some of the fees involved in setting up and running a budget bank account at the Credit Union shop at 8 Acomb Court off York Road (tel.03030 300010) .

Details of budget and other accounts available at the branch can be found on the SYCC web site

The Council is taking the action to encourage those reliant on the Universal Credits benefit package to budget to avoid debts. Univeral Credit is paid in arrears and can be difficult to manage.

A report to a recent meeting says,

“A recent article on the Association of Retained Council Housing site indicated that:

86% of universal credit (UC) claimants living in council owned homes are in rent arrears (compared to 79% at March 2016).
59% of universal credit claimants living in council owned homes have arrears that equate to more than one month’s rent.
Although 63% of UC tenants in arrears had pre-existing arrears before their UC claim only 44% of them are on APAs (alternative payment arrangements with direct payment from DWP)
The average value of arrears tenants owed across UC households has almost doubled to £615 since 31 March 2016 when average amount was £321.

A research article expressed concern about rent arrears.

“Not only are numbers of households increasing as UC is rolled out, but the percentage of households falling into rent arrears and experiencing financial difficulty is critically high.

If this trend is not reversed it will have significant impact on local authorities’ rental income streams and the long term ability for housing departments to provide essential services to their communities.

Use of the SYCU budget account and related services by customers could be one way of helping them manage their money effectively, prevent debt and help manage debt where this is accrued”.

Council officials will now help to promote the budget account to qualifying residents.