The latest news from your Healthwatch Lancashire

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Another month passes, and autumn is slowly creeping closer, here at your Healthwatch, we have had a busy month welcoming new members of the team as well as much more...

This month, we celebrate new beginnings with our Enter and View visits returning in full force after COVID and beginning a new chapter visiting Day Care centres and Care homes.

You'll also read about new opportunities to take part in volunteering opportunities in hospitals and care services, and finally Healthwatch England's response to the ongoing NHS Dentistry crisis.

Our Enter and View visits

If you've read our previous editions of the Healthwatch Lancashire newsletters, you will know that we have recently started visiting day services as part of our Enter and View programme, to gain insights into how people who use the service are finding it. It is a great way to highlight good practice, as well as areas for improvement.

The team are also excited to be resuming their Care Home Enter and View visits which had to come to a halt during the pandemic.

Explore our Enter & View Reports

A chance to have your say today

We have already had hundreds of responses to our COVID-19 Vaccination survey and the insights are invaluable.

We want to thank everyone who has completed our surveys!

If you have yet to fill in this survey, why not click here and have your say today?

Volunteering: a new opportunity for you

Have you had an experience with hospital services? Have you or a friend or relative had a stay in hospital? PLACE assessments are a yearly national event in the NHS. Volunteers and staff are taken around areas of the hospital or care services to assess the environment and where improvements can be made.

You can continue reading about PLACE assessments here.

The Dentistry Crisis

We are hearing every day that access to dentistry is a major issue and concern for Lancashire residents. As a Healthwatch, it is important for us to use our platform to highlight such issues.

As part of the investigation, BBC News contacted nearly 7,000 NHS practices - believed to be almost all those offering general treatment to the public.

It is also heard from people across the UK who could not afford private fees and said NHS dentists were crucial to getting care. However, the lack of NHS appointments has led people to drive hundreds of miles in search of treatment, pull out their own teeth without anaesthesia, resort to making their own improvised dentures and restrict their long-term diets to little more than soup.

Read our full response here

"Every voice counts when it comes to shaping the future of services and improving them"

Share your experiences of accessing local health and care services by visiting our online Feedback Centre.

Share your feedback

Meet the team

Emmy - Senior Engagement Officer

'Hello, my name is Emmy and I began my journey with Healthwatch Lancashire in June as a Senior Engagement Officer. I have immersed myself in Enter and Views in daycare centres and enjoy engaging with people when we join the HARRI bus; where I can speak to people about their experiences on health and social care.

Moving forward I am eager to start care home Enter and Views and venture into hospice care establishments to help and support them to make the services the best they can be'.