News and reports

For one week, from 27 October 2014 – 1 November 2014 (this was also half term week) Healthwatch Waltham Forest attended Whipps Cross Hospital Emergency and Urgent Care Centre (EUCC) to undertake surveys with patients in the waiting area

This report reflects the discussions that took place at our GP services fit for the future event. It highlights issues such as those concerning service accessibility; information and communication; patient involvement; joined-up services; and complaints mechanisms (to name a few), and it also goes on to present features for ‘ideal GP services’ of the future in Waltham Forest.

We visited Parkview House on 2nd September 2014.

With the Stroke Association, we co-hosted a focus group on Friday 26th September 2014, to record stroke survivors’ views on their experiences of health and social care services as a whole.
The event was attended by around 15 service users and carers, plus stroke nurses from Whipps Cross Hospital. From the comments recorded, 185 issues have been identified.
This report identifies clear trends and offers suggestions on what could and should be improved, what is failing, and what is working well.

We visited Peartree House Care Home on 31st July 2014.

We visited St Catherine's Rest Home on 31st July 2014.

We visited Almadene Care Home on 21st July 2014.

We visited Mapleton Road on 6th July 2014.

We visited George Mason Lodge on 12th July 2014.

We visited the Highcroft Care Home on 24th June 2014.

This report is a summary of the discussion with parent carers over three meetings in the spring of 2014 and focuses upon children and young people with disabilities or Special Education Needs (SEN).

The discussion that took place at our deaf and hard of hearing focus group, highlighted issues that we have heard from other borough residents: the difficulty in getting a GP appointment, limited time with the GP, waiting times at the hospital and a lack of continuity in social care services for example.