Quarterly Update: January to March 2026

Report - 14 April 2026

This update summarises what local people are telling us about health and care, where experience is breaking down, and what we are doing with partners in response.

Latest insight reports

We have published three new reports on local people’s experiences of health and care:
•    Experience of health, care and community services
•    GP patient experience
•    Whipps Cross University Hospital experience 

Key headlines

Experience of services

  • 81% positive overall experience
  • Quality of care and staff experience consistently strong
  • Access remains the weakest area at 65% positive

High satisfaction with care, but lower satisfaction with access.

Care itself is strong. Access to care remains the main pressure point.

Whipps Cross University Hospital

  • 37% positive overall experience
  • Significant issues with waiting times, communication and involvement
  • Clear gap between care quality and patient experience

There is a clear gap between the quality of care and how people experience getting into and moving through services.

GP services

  • 83% positive overall experience
  • Persistent issues with access, booking and waiting times
  • Increasing complaints about administration and communication

The clinical experience is strong. The access experience is not.

System-wide insight

  • Staff and clinical care are consistently strong
  • Problems are concentrated in access, administration, communication and navigation

This is a system issue, not isolated service failure.

Healthwatch priorities

  • GP access – identifying and spreading what works
  • Integrated care and reablement – experience after discharge
  • Prevention and health literacy – targeted community work
  • Underserved groups – improving reach and representation

Highlights this quarter

  • Analysed feedback from over 1,600 local people and shared with system partners
  • Undertaking Safe Surgeries review, identifying variation in GP registration access
  • Worked with PPG Forum to strengthen patient voice at practice level
  • Began focused work on identifying and spreading effective GP access approaches

These areas of work are directly focused on addressing the access, communication and navigation issues identified in our insight.

Why this matters

Make experience visible alongside performance data

Use insight to shape decisions, not just describe problems

Track whether change improves people’s experience

Experience is not breaking down in treatment.

It is breaking down before and around care.

 

You might also be interested in