Pharmacists can help provide a "powerful voice" on how local healthcare services are commissioned by getting involved with independent health watchdog Healthwatch England, Havering Healthwatch director and North-East London LPC secretary Hemant Patel has said.

Mr Patel said pharmacists could join the boards of the 152 local branches of Healthwatch England – which will pass on patients' views on healthcare services to commissioners and the government – and educate their members about pharmacy services and act as "a powerful voice in commissioning services".

"[Healthwatch] is an organisation that will be listening to the views of people [and] will be listened to by commissioners" Hemant Patel North-East London LPC

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The groups have powers to inspect pharmacies and other healthcare facilities, although any pharmacist on the healthwatch board would not be expected to do this themselves, he said. "[Healthwatch's] main job is to gather views and understand the experience of people who use pharmacy or any other healthcare facility. For example, if there's something wrong in the hospital service, they could contact the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on behalf of the people of the borough and tell them what's wrong," Mr Patel said.

"This is an organisation that will be listening to the views of people [and] will be listened to by commissioners, both at the health level and the social care level," he added.

Healthwatch groups came into existence on April 1 and took over from Local Involvement Networks, which ran from 2008.

Unlike the networks, healthwatch groups have independent statutory powers to act on behalf of adults and children and will have a seat on their local authority's health and wellbeing board.

Each group is contractually obliged to ensure their membership is reflective of the local community. They can signpost patients to healthcare services where there is good practice and pass on feedback from their communities to the national Healthwatch England committee, which can then influence government policy.

Details of your local Healthwatch can be found here and look out for C+D's guide to Healthwatch England, the CQC and Monitor in C+D, April 13.