News and reports

People have told us mental health is a top priority in 2016. The Government recently announced extra support for mental health in England, along with faster treatment for teenagers with eating disorders.

New figures show that approximately 27,900 new written complaints were made to the NHS between July and September 2015.

People have told us that being able to access primary care services is a major concern. As part of our investigation into people’s experiences of using services, we are sharing a series of blogs setting out what different consumer groups told us.

A child or young person’s early life experiences have a crucial impact on their adult health and life chances. Find out what one local Healthwatch is doing to get more young people to share their experiences of health and care.

Autism diagnosis waiting times was the top complaint received at Cheshire East Clinical Commissioning Group. The local Healthwatch listened to over 200 carers to find out more about their experiences.

The Healthcare Travel Costs Scheme exists to help people on lower incomes recover the cost of travelling to and from NHS treatment, but how easy is it to use? Healthwatch Islington conducted a ‘mystery shopping’ exercise to find out.

Being able to access primary care services is a key concern that the public have raised with local Healthwatch. In our latest blog we share the views of one group of British Pakistani women from Waltham Forest.

Today David Cameron pledged £1 billion in extra mental health support for England. Read our response.

Local Healthwatch made 600 visits last year to find out how people feel about the quality of health and care services. We spoke to Healthwatch Lancashire to find out how patients felt about changes that were made to a nearby hospital.

The answer is, in short no, but this was one of the 10 common problems we found when our network spoke to over 11,000 people about their experiences of primary care. Here are examples of what local Healthwatch have been doing to tackle this problem.

Results from the latest GP Patient Survey shows patient satisfaction is declining.

Katherine Rake looks back at the factors that are helping Healthwatch amplify the voice of health and social care consumers.