On behalf of all of my colleagues involved in Healthwatch Together across the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System, and in line with national guidance from Healthwatch England, we have reluctantly agreed to suspend all face to face engagement work with people for the moment. This feels like the most responsible approach and would include Enter and View, visits to clinics to complete surveys, focus groups and generic engagement.
We have discussed this with our Contract Managers and they support this decision. Meanwhile, we will explore ways to continue capturing people’s views and experiences remotely through on-line and telephone mechanisms and aim to meet current project agreements as far as possible, although we may need to review targets and expectations.
We are also considering how our staff can support people in other ways in line with the Healthwatch signposting function by providing information to help to keep people well informed and by keeping in contact with people we know to be vulnerable.
We hope that you agree that this is the best way forward in the short term and we plan to keep you informed with any further change as and when it happens.
Meanwhile we wish you the very best through this challenging time
