How we're making a difference
Over 350,000 people shared their views with Healthwatch about their experience of health and social care, including their experiences of COVID-19. From these experiences, we made 5,870 recommendations to services based on your experiences of care.
Take a look at last year's highlights in our annual report.
Our year in numbers 2019-20
350,000
People shared their story about health and social care story with their local Healthwatch.
950,000
People accessed advice and information online, by phone, or face-to-face.
250+
COVID-19 reports were published for professionals about people's first hand experiences of care.
3,900+
people volunteered their time last year to help make a difference to local health and care services
The impact we make
Since COVID-19 has struck, it's more important than ever to support and listen.
Locally, Healthwatch are supporting the community effort, from helping to distribute care packages, to providing support for people in self-isolation, helping people to find out about local services and working hard to understand issues locally.
Nationally, thanks to our network of Healthwatch we have been able to help the response to COVID-19 with rapid feedback from people who have had first-hand experience of services. We're making sure that everyone case use health services, including those that don't have the internet.
Making impact: Our volunteers
Healthwatch Brighton and Hove volunteers Mazzie and Cindy have been volunteering their time to provide telephone support and wellbeing checks to people leaving hospital.
Thanks to their work, people are being referred back to care when they need it and signposted for additional community support, making sure no one slips through the net.
Read more
Making impact: Improving digital appointments
Overnight, GPs and many other services went entirely online. But while telephone and video consultations are more convenient and easier to access for some, we found that it wasn't working well for all. Based on the experiences shared with us, we developed a checklists for patients and health and care professionals on how to get the most out of digital appointments.
