HEALTHWATCH Coventry is in the running for a prestigious award for its work helping to improve care for local people.
The National Healthwatch Impact Award recognises excellent examples of opinions of local people being used to make useful changes to health and care support.
The Healthwatch Coventry team was shortlisted for its work on providing maternity care for asylum seekers and refugee women.
The project, together with local voluntary group Carriers of Hope, recognised poor experiences of maternity care and challenged current approaches to bring important changes.
Louise Ansari, chief executive of Healthwatch England, said: “Over a million people-a-year either seek advice from Healthwatch or share their care experience.
“And, every year, there are thousands of examples of where this feedback has been used by services to make positive changes to health and care. Getting shortlisted for our national impact award is no mean feat.
“It means your work has made a real difference for local communities, often amid ongoing challenges facing health and care services.”
The project is developing new forms of communication and providing services. This is helping challenge national policy on moving pregnant women around the country which is leading to fragmented patient care.
Healthwatch Coventry chief officer, Ruth Light, said: “It is really good to be recognised for the valuable work we are doing, alongside other excellent projects from across the Healthwatch Network.”
There are 17 different projects up for the award across England and the winner will be announced in March.
Visit healthwatchcoventry.co.uk/improving-maternity-care to read more about the project.
