September News

This month's newsletter is full of news and updates, including special events from our partners: 

• Share your feedback
• We're recruiting - Advisory Board 
• Healthy Heart 
• Physiotherapy 
• Organ donation week 

As always, you can contact us if you would like to share your views on health and social care in Barnet.

If you've got five minutes, please use our webform to tell us about your experiences of the NHS and social care in Barnet. You can also give us your feedback over the phone.

We regularly share residents' views with the NHS Integrated Care Board and Barnet Council, and advocate for improvements to services. Your feedback is confidential and won't affect your care, but it can help improve services for everyone. If our standard webform isn’t accessible for you, please download our easy read survey.

Advisory Board

Are you a Barnet resident, with experience of using local health or social care services? Please consider applying to join our Advisory Board.

Healthwatch Barnet is your local health and social care champion. Our Advisory Board supports our staff to deliver our work in the borough, and makes decisions about how we use our powers. It plays a key role in ensuring the involvement of local people in our work and decision-making, upholding our independence, and supporting us to work with other local organisations.   

We particularly welcome applications from groups that are less represented in senior NHS decision-making roles, including global majority candidates, disabled people and people with long-term health conditions, including mental health issues. 

Most meetings will be online video calls, with some face to face meetings. For more information, see our website or email alice@healthwatchbarnet.co.uk  

National Fitness Day

Our Healthy Heart team have had a busy few weeks, working with dozens of their peers in Barnet’s African, Caribbean and South Asian communities to promote heart health. For more details, see our Healthy Heart project.

With World Fitness Day coming up next week, this is a great time for us all to think about staying active. Regular physical activity can lower your risk of heart disease, reduce blood pressure and improve overall well-being.

There are lots of free and low cost way to stay fit in Barnet, including outdoor gyms and walking trails. Free parkruns take place on Saturday mornings in Oak Hill and Sunny Hill.

Barnet Council recently launched the Moves+ app – download this for free to earn points when you walk or exercise. You can then swap these points for discounted hot drinks, healthy snacks, access to Better gyms and other rewards. On the app, you can also join groups to achieve milestones together.

Physiotherapy

Did you know that many GP surgeries now have in-house physiotherapists? Physiotherapy can help with getting bones, muscles and joints moving safely after an injury or illness, or where people have challenges due to long-term conditions. You can speak to your GP about physiotherapy referrals.

Alternatively, you can also refer yourself to a physiotherapy service directly. First, read the pre-referral checklist. Then, if the checklist prompts you to do so, complete a referral form. For full details, plus education and exercise videos, see the Central London Community Healthcare physiotherapy pages. 

If you need help filling out the self-referral form, email the SPC team at clcht.barnetselfreferral@nhs.net or phone 0208 732 6328. Please note, the SPC team cannot provide clinical guidance - contact your GP if this is needed.

Organ Donation Week

Organ Donation Week begins on 23 September. This year, we’re celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of the of the Organ Donor Register.

The NHS is reminding everyone to log their personal decision about organ donation. From 23 September, landmarks across the country will be lit up pink to raise awareness. Let's turn the town pink and spread the message!

In the last ten years, around 10,000 people have helped others after their death through organ donation, enabling an estimated 25,000 transplants. For more information about organ donation, see the NHS’s guide.