STAFF at a Healthwatch Barnsley are urging residents to sign a petition to keep the service they run after it was revealed the government plans to abolish it.
Healthwatch Barnsley acts as the independent champion for local health and social care, ensuring residents’ voices are heard and their experiences are used to improve services.
They gather feedback on local health and social care services, and use this information to influence how services are designed and delivered.
They also provide information, advice, and support about local services.
But under proposals from the NHS Ten-Year Health Plan, Healthwatch Barnsley would be abolished.
Functions would instead be transferred ‘in-house’ to local authorities and NHS Integrated Care Boards once legislation has passed.
This is a result of the/ Review of patient safety across the health and care landscape, led by Dr Penny Dash.
A spokesperson for Healthwatch Barnsley said: “If this goes ahead as planned, it will remove the only collective, independent and statutory opportunity for the public to hold the NHS and social care system to account./
“Given the dash review’s aim of ‘greater emphasis being placed on the patient voice’, and the aim of the NHS Ten-Year Health Plan to give greater power to patients, we cannot see how this can be achieved by abolishing local Healthwatch, which has worked for the last 12 years to amplify voices which otherwise may not be heard.
“There has been a statutory provision of an independent service representing the public voice for over 50 years.
“Proposals to bring public voice functions under the control of local authorities or NHS bodies threatens to compromise the impartiality, trust, and effectiveness of these initiatives.
“Having an opportunity to go to an independent service for advice, help, support or to raise concerns is paramount.
“Independence is not optional - it is essential for transparency, accountability, and meaningful change.”
A petition has subsequently been launched to help save the service, and Healthwatch Barnsley are urging residents to sign it in a bid to send a message.
The spokesperson added: “Local Healthwatch have put together a petition calling on the government to protect the independence of local voices in health and care and we ask for your support in signing it.
“We believe the government needs to recognise the role independent voice can play in supporting the three shifts outlined in the ten year health plan by providing constructive challenge and supporting co-production, particularly with those communities facing the greatest health and care needs.
“People need a voice in the future of health and care.
“This must stay independent.”
A link to sign the petition can be found on the Barnsley Chronicle website.
