Lancashire and Cumbria healthcare organisations form partnership
Four Healthwatch organisations - Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Cumbria and Lancashire - have come together to form a ground-breaking partnership, Healthwatch Together.
The collaboration will cover all of Lancashire and South Cumbria.
Local Healthwatch organisations engage with members of the public to ensure their views are heard by local health and social care decision-makers.
The eventual result being that local people are actively shaping and developing how health and social care services are delivered in each locality.
Each Healthwatch organisation will continue to work in their own geographical area, providing that local approach to community engagement.
However, in response to changing times, the four Healthwatch organisations have come together so that they can provide seamless engagement work across the
Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System footprint.
Sue Stevenson, who is Healthwatch Together lead, said: “This is an exciting time for us - a strong united Healthwatch collaboration
across Lancashire and South Cumbria is exactly what we require as the NHS forges ahead with the Long Term Plan.
“Our respective Healthwatch organisations have an impressive record in excellent community engagement, mobilising our local communities to actively have a say in how their local health and social care services are delivered. These uncertain times require strong and co-ordinated collaboration across the Healthwatch sector and that is exactly what we are doing.’