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Our projects and initiatives have generated insight on health and care issues, which we have published in a number of reports setting out our key findings and recommendations.
Our recent publications include:
- Mystery Shopping: Reviewing GP practice websites for Bexhill Primary Care Network.
- Asylum Seekers: Experiences of Health and Care in Eastbourne
- Children In Care: Experiences of Review Health Assessments
- East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust: Complaints Review 2023
- What we are hearing, monitoring and doing Quarter 2: July to September 2023
- People’s Experiences of long COVID in Sussex: Qualitative engagement
How do we use this insight?
We share our publications with decision-makers, such as NHS Sussex, East Sussex County Council and Voluntary and Community organisations to share insight, inform decisions and support service development that meets the needs and aspirations of local people.
Details of each of our initiatives and what you told us are set out below.
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Mystery Shopping: Reviewing GP practice websites for Bexhill Primary Care Network
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In May/June 2023, Healthwatch volunteers and staff reviewed a draft website for one of the three practices that make up Bexhill Primary Care Network [PCN].
Our aim was to undertake a ‘lay review’ and support Bexhill PCN in delivering an effective and engaging website which meets NHS, best practice and user requirements.
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Outcomes:
- Feedback from Healthwatch volunteers identified that the draft website developed by GPSurgery.net in collaboration with Bexhill PCN for one its surgeries was generally well designed, laid out, had robust and clear content and delivered effective functionality.
- Everyone involved in the review acknowledged the challenges of developing a platform or tool that was acceptable to everyone and met all possible content and usability requirements. This included balancing the preferences of users, the needs of PCN/practice staff and the operational limitations/requirements of the website (including accessibility).
- The details findings from our review are set out in our brief report, which explains what the process we followed and what we found.
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Asylum Seekers: Experiences of Health and Care in Eastbourne
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After hearing that asylum seekers in Eastbourne were regularly struggling to access basic healthcare during our 2022 Listening Tour, Healthwatch East Sussex decided to explore this.
We attended regular outreach sessions to provide information to support access to health services in collaboration with The Sanctuary Café, which delivers volunteer-led support to asylum seekers and migrants in Eastbourne.
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We heard:
- There is a need for better access to translation services, particularly at the point of accessing services.
- A better understanding of the rights and needs of asylum seekers by healthcare staff is needed to improve access to and experiences of health and care services.
- A lack of basic resources, including money, access to a phone and the internet, are having a detrimental impact on the ability of asylum seekers to access services, including making appointments and accessing emergency care.
- Asylum seekers’ lack of knowledge how the NHS works, including GPs as a primary gateway to services, which hinders their ability to access care.
We conclude that the root of the barriers experienced by the asylum seekers stem from three key issues of communication, the need for services to work together, and the lack of resources available to asylum seekers.
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Children In Care: Experiences of Review Health Assessments
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East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (ESHT) commissioned Young Healthwatch East Sussex (YHWES) to engage with young people (aged 11 to 19), living in foster care in East Sussex, to understand how ESHT could improve young people’s experiences of having a Review Health Assessment (RHA).
Using a short survey which they developed in partnership with ESHT staff, YHWES gathered information from 19 young people living in foster care to gather their experiences of the Review Health Assessment.
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Key findings:
• Participants previous experiences of Review Health Assessments were generally positive, with young people expressing that they felt the process was ‘about them’ and centred around their needs.
• Participants felt that their experiences of RHA’s would be improved if they had more control over where the review took place and who attended.
• More could be done to inform young people in care of the reasoning behind the RHA’s and their right to decline being assessed.
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East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust: Complaints Review 2023
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A team of independent volunteers from Healthwatch East Sussex (HWES) reviewed the processes used by East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (ESHT) when they are in receipt of a complaint.
The volunteer reviewers examined a random selection of complaints received by ESHT and scrutinised each for adherence to the Trust's specified process. All activity was dealt with in the strictest confidence and the subject of the complaint was not open to scrutiny.
From this process, HWES identified six recommendations to support the development of the complaints process to ensure it meets the needs of all parties.
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What we are hearing, monitoring and doing Quarter 2: July to September 2023
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Each quarter we draw together public and patient experiences of health and care shared with us via enquiries to our Information & Signposting service, reviews on our Feedback Centre, public events and through our community and professional networks.
This document is a summary of the things we have heard about health and care, the issues we are monitoring and the actions we are taking.
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People’s Experiences of long COVID in Sussex: Qualitative engagement
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During May 2023, Healthwatch in Sussex interviewed 16 survey respondents who had participated in our long COVID survey in 2022.
Interviews focused on two main cohorts of people, those who have used the Post-COVID Assessment and Support Service (PCASS) (which supports those experiencing long COVID symptoms of four or more weeks duration) and those who had not.
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We heard:
• Most people told us long COVID had a significant impact on their lives, including their physical and mental health, as well as affecting their day-to-day activities, jobs, quality of life and wider wellbeing.
• Some people experienced improvements in their health since developing long COVID, others learned to adapt and manage their symptoms, but overall many remained adversely affected, requiring ongoing medical or therapeutic support, as well as help from friends, family and carers with day-to-day living.
• Awareness and understanding of long COVID still appears relatively low amongst the general populace, employers, in statutory services, and remains variable between different health and care services and practitioners.
• A potential bottleneck remains in accessing support for long COVID [PCASS] due to the main route for long COVID referrals being through primary care, affecting the consistency of experience and uptake.
• The diverse range of physical and mental symptoms of long COVID, makes it challenging to deliver a single comprehensive response for any single organisation or service, and support needs to be joined-up.
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Tell us your experiences of local health and care services
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We always want to hear the experiences of local people when they use health and care services.
You can share your experience by leaving a review on our Feedback Centre at any time and tell us how things were for you. What was good and what could be improved?
You can also share your experience or seek further support with health and care enquiries from our Information & Signposting service via:
Email: Enquiries@healthwatcheastsussex.co.uk
Telephone: 0333 101 4007 Monday – Friday (10am-2pm)
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