Patients need to speak up about their health and social care experiences says Healthwatch

During June and July 2022, Healthwatch staff and volunteers undertook engagement ‘roadshows’, attending a number of community events and venues across East Sussex, often alongside our NHS colleagues.

We wanted to identify if health and care services are doing enough to listen to the public and patients, explore how they gather feedback and identify what could be improved so patients feel confident that their issues are heard and acted on.

Our latest report sets out what people told us.

• People who had given feedback had done so directly to their service or using a feedback form after an appointment. Some people did know how to leave feedback or make a complaint.
   
• The majority (66.9%) of respondents told us that they had not given feedback, stating that they had never been asked or did not know how, and others mentioned that they would value finding out how to leave feedback.
   
• 82.9% of respondents had not heard of Healthwatch or our Feedback Centre.
   
• The number of people who felt they were listened to or not when it came to their health and care needs was mixed, but more people believed that their opinions would not be acted upon.
   
• Further comments highlighted that many people had negative experiences of accessing and using health and care and many of these related to GP services. Despite this, the individuals who had been able to access services told us that they were generally happy with the service they had received.

• Encouragement from Healthwatch, local providers and commissioners for residents to leave positive and negative feedback on services across the county.
   
• Healthwatch East Sussex to work harder at making the public aware of who they are and the services they offer.
   
• Health and care services to listen more to the public’s experiences. This can be done through providing more face-to-face appointments and public involvement teams deciding the best situations and occasions to listen to the public.
   
• The NHS and local authority need to act more on residents’ opinions, by making direct changes based on patients’ views and experiences, as well as highlighting the changes they have made when listening to patients’ needs.
   
• The NHS and local authority need to boost the public’s confidence in health and care services, showing how they will improve services despite a lack of funding or staff and acknowledging that there is a lack of GP appointments available at the moment and acting on this to improve the situation.

For media enquiries about Healthwatch East Sussex, please contact John Routledge, Executive Director, on 07794 100 291 or via john.routledge@escv.org.uk.

If you have any feedback on your experiences of using health and care services, then do leave a review on our Feedback Centre so it can be shared with others. It only takes a few minutes. 

Telephone: 0333 101 4007 
 
Email: enquiries@healthwatcheastsussex.co.uk