Reaching out to our local community
We strive to hear from as many different voices as possible throughout our research and engagement. We want to make sure that local people's views and experiences are used to improve services, and included in every conversation about how health and social care is run.
We understand that factors such as culture, location, wealth, education, environment and discrimination can lead to worse health outcomes, and we support the strong consensus that this must change. At Healthwatch, we will do what we can to be a part of that change, by amplifying the voices of communities that go unheard and fighting health inequalities wherever we find them.
Our impact
Making recommendations to improve local hospital care
Enter & View volunteers visited out-patient wards at Chelse & Westminster Hospital, to find out how easily patients could access care and what changes might make the experience even better. The visit resulted in 24 recommendations, which are now being taken forward by the hospital's patient experience team. This includes:
- Refresher awareness and training sessions for staff on the hearing loop system, to improve accessibility
- More information for patients about translation and interpreting services
- Improved signage to the eye clinic to make it easier for people to read if they have visual impairments
Supporting people to make a complaint
People using NHS services have the right to make a complaint when something goes wrong.
We've been helping people by explaining the NHS complaints process and making referrals so that local people can access advocacy. Residents have told us that our advice has reassured them and helped them understand what steps to take.
To help drive further change, Healthwatch will be hosting a collaborative complaints discussion, giving people who've experienced the process an opportunity to share their feedback with decision-makers.
Putting services under scrutiny
We're part of the Adult Social Care and Health Select Committee, which means we can share residents' views with the people responsible for scrutinising services. This year we've shared concerns about the affordability of medications and spoken about patient perspectives on changes to GP access. These issues are now being taken forward by the North West London integrated care system.
Are there issues you'd like us to raise at local boards and committees? You can use our health services survey to tell us about them.
Evaluating care received after leaving hospital
We partnered with the North West London Networked Data Lab to provide qualitative research looking at the support patients and carers have received after leaving hospital - what's know as Intermediate Care. Our project provided qualitative context to their report on quantitative patient and care data. This data will be used to consider what changes are needed to improve the health of our communities. Our recommendations included better communication and planning as well as more involvement of patients and carers throughout when decisions are being made.
