Annual Reports

It’s been a year of growth and development for Healthwatch Waltham Forest. We are the independent champion for people who use health and social care services in the borough.

Summary

We are here to find out what matters to people and help make sure their views shape the support they need. We also help people find the information they need about local services.

Our year in numbers

• 3,564 people shared their experiences of health and social care services with us, helping to raise awareness of issues and improve care.
• 259 residents came to us for clear advice and information about topics such as mental health and the cost of living crisis.
• We produced 44 reports on resident insights and how they thought health and care services could be improved.

How did we help make a difference?

• We interviewed 22 Care Homes about new GP services for their residents.
• Feedback was very positive with resident wellbeing improving. Issues concerned access to dentistry, mental health, and continence services.
• We gathered feedback from over 1,000 people on their experience of accessing GPs.
• Insights suggest that different access systems for the generally well and for people with long-term conditions and the vulnerable may improve experience.
• We visited maternity services, conducted surveys, and reached out to ethnic minority and faith groups to talk about why some women have poorer maternity outcomes.
• Whipps Cross and health services are working with local women to improve cultural awareness.
• We worked with our neighbouring Healthwatch to look at urgent care and ambulance services.
• We found that to tackle A&E and urgent care services we need to tackle access to GP services. We are working with Waltham Forest GPs to develop solutions.

If you need this report in a different format please email info@healthwatchwalthamforest.co.uk

Healthwatch England has published its annual report for 2022-23.

Over 380,000 people shared their experiences with Healthwatch nationally and locally. In doing so, they helped us make a real difference. We carried out work that highlighted quality and safety concerns, that tested if new policies are working in practice, and that uncovered hidden problems and emerging trends.

And we highlighted key issues, from the impact of the soaring cost of living on people’s healthcare to the “hidden waiting list” created by delays to GP referrals.
We highlighted the increasing issues people have getting mental health support, contributing to the release of the primary care recovery plan.
NHS England published a plan to improve care for Long Covid after people shared their stories with us.
There were updates to the guidance for GPs on six-week post-natal checks after we revisited the issue of maternal mental health.
The NHS ran a campaign around the NHS App and how it can help patients after we highlighted the need to increase confidence in the NHS.
The NHS announced changes to their contract with dentists, after our data showed widening inequalities.

Easy read version of Healthwatch England report.

Large print version of Healthwatch England report.

If you need the report in any other format then please
email enquiries@healthwatch.co.uk or call 0300 0068 3000.