Healthwatch Isle of Wight has been nominated for a prestigious national award for their inpatient mental health wards visits which has helped improve the environment for patients staying in these wards on the Isle of Wight.
Healthwatch Isle of Wight was shortlisted under the ‘Celebrating our volunteer team’ category in the Healthwatch Awards 2020, which are run by Healthwatch England.
This annual event – which this year is taking place virtually due to the pandemic – celebrates the difference Healthwatch’s 4,400 staff and volunteers have made over the past year. Healthwatch Isle of Wight is one of only 30 local Healthwatch out of a total of 152 across England to be in the running for one of the awards.
Like their colleagues across the country, Healthwatch Isle of Wight staff and volunteers have been supporting their local community more than ever through the pandemic by:
- Finding out what people like about health and social care support, and what could be improved
- Helping people find the information they need about services in their area and;
- Encouraging those in charge of NHS and social care services to make the changes that communities would like to see.
In addition, the team at Healthwatch Isle of Wight have also been liaising with service providers and commissioners about access to NHS dentistry on the Isle of Wight. Accessing NHS dentistry has been a long standing concern for Isle of Wight residents but this has heightened exponentially throughout the pandemic and has therefore become a priority area for Healthwatch Isle of Wight.
The overall winner from each category will be chosen by a panel of judges and announced during Healthwatch Week, which runs from Monday 2nd November 2020.
Joanna Smith, Manager of Healthwatch Isle of Wight said:
“We as a team are incredibly humbled by the hard work and dedication displayed by our wonderful team of volunteers and are delighted that their efforts have been nationally recognised”.
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More information about the shortlist can be found on the Healthwatch England website.
