What we’ve heard from people living in West Yorkshire
Listening to what people and communities tell us is important. This has been central to the development of all work, including this strategy. As a Partnership we have ongoing conversations with people and communities living in West Yorkshire, supported by Healthwatch partners as set out in our Involvement Framework and the work of our local places.
As part of the development of this strategy, a number of reports summarising what people are telling us is their experience of health and care have been produced. This includes a Healthwatch Insight Report published in August 2022, a mapping report published in May 2022 setting out involvement and consultation activity across West Yorkshire and lastly a further mapping report from across the Partnership. This provides oversight of engagement in all other areas of work. This is produced every year.
A number of themes have been raised over the last year (2022) as a result of these discussions in relation to healthcare across West Yorkshire. The changing context has in many cases placed a new emphasis on some of the themes and more recently the cost-of- living crisis has been an escalating issue.
Access to primary care remains a key area of concern. Primary care is considered the front door to the wider health and care service and many feel let down when they can’t access their GP in a way that works for them. There is a deep concern that this has a negative impact on their health and wellbeing.
Access to dentistry services continues to be an issue raised for both children and adults. This is both in terms of being able to register with an NHS dentist and access to appointments and treatment when registered. It was also raised that access to urgent dental care was not as responsive as needed.
“I moved here six months before the pandemic, and I have been unable to find an NHS dentist taking on patients”.
Of increasing concern is the cost-of-living crisis which continues to escalate and impact on people’s lives. This impacts significantly on their ability to make choices that positively impact their wellbeing, such as accessing healthcare, undertaking activities that support mental wellbeing, eating healthy nutritious food and being able to live in warm, safe housing. These challenges are having a particular impact on those who are living with social disadvantage, serious illness, addictions and those people who are carers.
We know that suicide rates rise during times of economic recessions and financial exclusion is a significant risk factor in suicide deaths.
“Currently the cost of living is causing a lot of problems in the local area and we’re seeing a dramatic increase in the number of members that come to us for support around bills, particularly utility bills. We have heard stories about people choosing whether they’re heating or eating, which is really difficult. At the moment the sun is shining, so that will be less of a problem, but as the year goes on and the winter nights come in and things get colder, this is going to be more difficult for people”.
There continues to be concern around accessing support for mental health in a timely manner, an issue which has increased with the impact of the pandemic. Of significant concern is access to support for our children and young people and the level of support for children who are waiting for assessment for, or have been diagnosed with, autism. Self-harm rates are rising, and the people we are supporting with mental health issues are becoming more unwell, more quickly than they have previously.
We know that the pandemic has led to significant delays in treatment, particularly for planned care services, and people are telling us that this is causing a deterioration in their physical, mental and emotional health. The impact of this is also extending to family members and carers.
The choice people have in accessing care that is right for them highlighted concerns about digital exclusion with many appointments and support moving to online. Many of our population do not have access to digital technology or have additional challenges in using it. This was particularly a challenge for people with learning disabilities.
Negative experiences of quality of care are starting to emerge in some care settings. Whilst it is acknowledged that this is in part due to challenges arising from the pandemic in terms of staff shortages, it is still important to be treated with care and compassion.
We know that children and young people from ethnic minority backgrounds and those in more deprived areas with diabetes have consistently poorer blood sugar control. We also recognise that there is a variation in access to digital technology such as continuous glucose monitoring.
“People (who don’t speak English) rely on families to help make the appointments, but sometimes after a long wait they are told to call back the next day as no appointments are available”.
“My GP surgery is very good. I can get a face-to-face appt to check my blood pressure and weight and if I’m told a GP will ring me back, they do. I rang once on a Friday and was offered an appointment on Monday but when I explained it was for my mental health she said, ‘oh no we can’t leave it until Monday’ and she got me a GP appointment for the same day. I can’t praise my surgery enough”.
To achieve this ambition, we will take a 
Our work on enabling the transformation of cancer services in West Yorkshire is coordinated at a system level, via the 
The Cancer Alliance works together with colleagues across all our West Yorkshire places, and Harrogate, to ensure that we are taking decisive action across the cancer pathway. This includes improved primary and secondary cancer prevention; better population awareness; promoting earlier diagnosis; achieving better treatment access, including to new therapies and innovations; and adopting a person-centred approach both to follow-up, and end of life care where needed. They also work closely with partners involved in delivering the other ambitions, so that our work is joined up and connected for the common benefit of the people we serve.
The total number of patients being referred with suspected cancer into local cancer services is now at pre-COVID-19 (2019) levels. The drop in referrals caused by the pandemic or gap has closed, as people come forward for help with symptoms. Similarly, almost all cancer treatment activity has recovered to pre-pandemic levels
Every death by suicide is devastating and can have a lifelong impact, with each death impacting an estimated 135 people on average. It is our biggest killer of both men under 50 and young people. Suicide is one of our partnership’s wicked issues, with no easy solution that one person or organisation can implement alone.
To mitigate these impacts, we need to:
Priorities for our West Yorkshire Anti-Microbial Resistance Board therefore include reducing the number of Urinary Tract Infections across the system and reducing inequalities related to E. coli Gram Negative bloodstream infections. 
The West Yorkshire Local Maternity and 
We will achieve a reduction in the gap in life expectancy between people with mental health conditions, learning disabilities and/ or autism and the rest of the population.
The reasons this gap exists can be divided into two main groups - increased risk of physical health conditions because of different risk factors and medications, and poorer access to health care when it is needed. This is more simply explained by saying that people with SMI, learning disabilities and autism face a range of inequalities that negatively impact their health and lives.
We will do this by working together to prevent and reduce the causes of trauma and adversity for children, young people and families who are vulnerable and experiencing complex needs, including households living in poverty.
We see the diversity of all communities and colleagues as a strength to help inform the way we plan, design and commission health and care services for people living across West Yorkshire. We want to make sure that everyone is treated fairly and given an equal chance to access opportunities, ensuring that we meet the needs of everyone so that our population all have good outcomes.
As part of our work to develop this strategy, we have taken an approach to ensure that we use the process to help create the way we want health and care to look like in the future. We have done this by building system leadership throughout our Partnership, ensuring that we can better integrate all our work in a way which enhances productivity, value for money and most importantly improves health and wellbeing outcomes for our people.
We know that excess plastics in the environment have a significant impact on our health, as does building antibiotic resistance due to drugs in our watercourses. There are also wide-reaching impacts on physical health, mental health and wellbeing as a result of significant weather events. As a health and care system, we need to also adapt to the impact of climate change now and in the future. This requires a whole system response that includes considerations for supply chains, estates, transports, how we deliver care, housing, planning of the physical environment – so the whole system becomes resilient, which is central to tackling health inequalities and enabling our population, including future generations, to live well.
We know that economic activity has a significant impact on health and wellbeing. Having a purpose and a living wage contribute significantly to a sense of belonging and being able to live a life well. Both the pandemic and the cost of living crisis has significantly impacted on this for many people in West Yorkshire.