Agenda item
Advocacy and Interpreting Services in Health
Presentation from Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group.
(Jane Milligan presenting)
The report examines the current provision of interpreting and advocacy services in health, considering how the current services in place at the CCG, Barts Health, and East London Foundation Trust meet the diverse needs of the Borough, and what the future plans to develop these services may be.
Minutes:
Jane Milligan (Chief Officer, Clinical Commissioning Group), Deborah Kelly and Farida Maluk from the Advocacy and Interpreting Services in Health were in attendance to present their report. They reported the following -
- Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was committed to providing high quality, equitable, effective healthcare services that would be responsive to the needs of all patients.
- Advocacy and
Interpreting services were vital support services for Tower
Hamlet’s patients due to the diverse population and would be
provided to patients across the following care settings in the
borough –
- Primary Care
- Community Care
- Secondary Care
- Mental Health Services
- ‘Advocacy’ and ‘Interpreting’ were used interchangeably and it would be helpful to define both services separately.
- Patients, service users and/or their carers have the right to effective communication in a form, language and manner that enables them to understand the information provided.
- Clinical care should
always be provided in such a manner as to ensure that patients and
service users and their carers or significant others can
–
- Communicate accurate information to clinicians and practitioners so that symptoms and their meanings can be understood, correctly diagnosed and the best available treatment offered;
- Understand the health issues facing the, the treatment options available and the steps required to recover or maintain well-being;
- Express themselves fully and freely as appropriate to the context within which they receive care.
- Interpretation and translation service provision in Tower Hamlets for patients who cannot communicate with health care professionals includes face to face first person translation and interpreting (including BSL) services, telephone first person translation and interpreting services and document translation.
- The CCG considers Advocacy to “involve taking action by communicating with patients and ensuring that they received the services they need”
- Advocacy helped
patients to –
- Make clear their own needs;
- Express and present their views effectively;
- Obtain independent advice and accurate information;
- Negotiate and resolve misunderstandings or conflict
- Advocacy and interpreting services to support the provision of primary and community care is commissioned directly by Tower Hamlets CCG.
- Currently provided by Barts Health NHS Trust as part of the Community Health Services contract and Praxis
- Service provision forms part of the Community Health Services procurement currently due to complete in March 2016.
Deborah Kelly (Deputy Chief Nurse) also informed the Panel that the Advocacy and Interpreting Services in Health had a large Advocacy Service, with resources that could support the advocacy service for another 12-18 months. The service worked collaboratively and interfaced with the community through 85 different activities including GP services and clinics in an acute setting. There have been over 100,000 face to face activities that have already taken place and have used over 160 languages with a 24 hour telephone service provision.
Members considered the presentation and made a number of comments on its contents. The following was noted:
- that measuring the inputs would be easy, but there needed to be a way to measure the outcomes and the services;
- that from experience the clinicians were usually the ones deciding whether the Advocacy and Interpreting Services were called, not the patient, whether it is for a telephone service or to get someone there face to face; and
- the Somali community were suffering in this respect in that they were not aware of the service available to them in relation to the advocacy and interpreting services and more needed to be done in order to raise awareness of the services.
It was noted that discussions were currently taking place to put protocols in place where outcomes and services could be measured, however, there was no ‘matrix’ currently available.
It was proposed that was always the patients’ choice and their right to make that choice. Further work was being done across the trust to raise awareness and to ensure that all services were available at all times. There were gaps that existed, but a large quantity of publicity material was currently being circulated in relation to free phone numbers to call and public advertising.
RESOLVED THAT –
1. the presentation and report be noted.
2. Jane Milligan (Chief Officer, CCG) be requested to keep the Health Scrutiny Panel up to date with the progress being made to establish a method to measure the outcomes of the Advocacy and Interpreting Services in Health.
3. Deborah Kelly (Deputy Chief Nurse) to provide the Health Scrutiny Panel with an update regarding the ‘publicity drive’ to raise awareness in relation to the services on offer.
Supporting documents:
- HSP Cover Report Advocacy Services, item 3.1 PDF 44 KB
- Advocacy services in health - CCG, item 3.1 PDF 114 KB