Your update on health and social care in Barnet
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Welcome to the November issue of your Healthwatch Barnet newsletter
This month's newsletter is full of news and updates, including special events from our partners:
- Winter Warmers
- Patient Entrepreneurs
- Remembrance Sunday
- Antibiotic Guardians
- Minor Health Concerns
As always, you can get in touch by email or phone if you would like to share your views on health and social care in Barnet.
Winter Warmers
With the cold weather starting to bite, a range of community groups and businesses are offering free, safe and welcoming spaces for residents to stay warm and connect with others.
There are 32 Warm Spaces across Barnet, check out Barnet Council's handy map.
For people aged 55 and older, Age UK Barnet is offering a Winter Home Check service, which could help keep your home warm this winter by providing free draught materials, a wealth of checks and small changes. The service costs £25, but is free if you are on the Age UK Barnet concession rate or you are referred from the Household Support Fund.
Patient Entrepreneurs
Are you a patient whose experience has led you to develop a healthcare innovation? Do you want to learn new skills to help scale this idea?
If so, this new programme could be for you.
The NHS has just launched their new Patient Entrepreneur Programme. The pilot is aimed at people with lived experience of an illness or condition, who have developed an innovation to improve patient care. The project aims to help people to move their innovation beyond design phase. It is a free 12 month support programme, and will give successful applicants access to workshops and webinars, mentoring, business planning sessions, healthcare experts, a network of mentors and more.
Applications for this programme are now open at www.nhscep.com/pep and will close on 27th November 2023. You can find out more at their launch webinar at 5.30pm on the 14th November.
Remembrance Sunday
This Remembrance Sunday, we would like to thank all of the military reserves teams who work within the NHS, and the medical corps staff who have given their lives over the years.
In Barnet, several services and parades are taking place this Sunday 12 November - please see details on the Barnet Council website.
Antibiotic Guardians
Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week begins on the 18th November, and a number of organisations are raising awareness of the risks of taking antibiotics when they aren't needed.
Taking antibiotics is necessary in some cases. However, did you know that taking them unnecessarily encourages harmful bacteria that live inside us to become resistant? That means that antibiotics may not work when we really need them, increasing the risk of a more severe or longer illness. Antibiotic resistant bloodstream infections continue to rise in England, with a 35% increase from 2013 to 2017.
To date, over 190,000 people around the world have pledged to become Antibiotic Guardians. They are members of the public, health professionals and educators. They have signed up through Public Health England's Keep Antibiotics Working campaign, which focuses on the risks of taking antibiotics unnecessarily.
Antibiotics cannot treat cold and flu symptoms - to find out more about how to help yourself when you have these symptoms, visit Treat Yourself Better.
Minor health concerns
As winter sets in, our risk of developing a minor illness increases. We wanted to remind you that your local pharmacy is there to help with your minor health concerns.
Pharmacists are trained healthcare professionals who can easily help with problems such as coughs and colds, itchy eyes and earache. If needed, local pharmacy staff can speak to you in the privacy of a consultation room. So, if you’re experiencing a minor health concern– speak to your local pharmacist to get expert advice straight away: Find a pharmacy - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
