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Healthwatch

Over to You Report Feb 2023

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Our Over to You report reviews what is important to you and the people of County Durham about health and care.

Hearing what people in County Durham think about the health and care services they use is an important part of the work we do here at Healthwatch.

We then use that information to decide which topics we are going to investigate further. This becomes part of our workplan for the coming year. When we spoke to people at the 14 events we attended this year, we asked them the following question about the current topics we are researching.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, were not able to get out and about to talk to people face-to-face about the things that were important to them in health and care services. This year, as things got back to normal and it was safer, we attended events around the county to meet up with the public to hear their views.

We attended 14 events from August to December 2022 and 165 people provided feedback to our questionnaire. This report summarises what we heard as well as highlighting some of the things you had concerns about.

At each event we gave people the opportunity to speak to us about any issues they had regarding services they accessed.

Download the Report

Back to Healthwatch County Durham Page

Home Care Report July 2022

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Investigating people’s experiences of home care services was selected by the public as one of their top four priorities when we asked them to help us decide our workplan for 2020/21.

Investigating people’s experiences of home care services was selected by the public as one of their top four priorities when we asked them to help us decide our workplan for 2020/21. We wanted to find out more about:

    • What was working well
    • How isolated service users felt
    • What could be better
    • If service-users felt safe at home

As our engagement work coincided with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic we were forced to stop all our face-to-face engagement. We had to rely on people completing the survey for us on-line or by post. We found that given the frailty of the service users and everything else that was going on in people’s lives the response was low. However, the people who took the time to respond provided some valuable information.
What came through strongly was that most people valued their care workers. Having friendly people coming into their homes to help them made a real difference.

We heard more than once that some of the frustrations were difficulties in speaking to someone in the office and changes being made to care without being told in advance.
Loneliness had been an issue for many. Some people told us care workers had been their only contact at times.

Although we feel we cannot give recommendations based on the size of the survey response, we have made some observations for commissioners and service providers to consider and these can be seen later in the report.

Download the Report

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Healthwatch County Durham Annual Report 2021/2022

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Message from our Chair:

Welcome to our annual report, highlighting the work we have been carrying out on your behalf this year. This report shows the difference your contributions can make.We have seen the successful COVID-19 vaccination programme rolled out across the country. We know getting back to normal is taking time, but it has been the better year we hoped for in our report last year.

I would to thank the Healthwatch team, who despite having staffing challenges,continued to support the community. We are working together to deliver our priorities for the coming year.

We will be reaching out into communities to meet people and hear your views. We want to involve you in planning our work to make sure our reports are clear and relevant. We would welcome your views about how we can improve our partnerships and look forward to hearing from you in the coming year.

There are big changes coming to the organisation of the health and care this year with the introduction of the Integrated Care System in July. We are working closely with local Healthwatch across the region, to make sure we continue to share what matters to you. We will continue to work with commissioners and service providers as your critical friend.

Watch out for our video diaries, social media updates and our gazebo which will be appearing in locations near you. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy reading this report and thank you for your continued support.

Chris Cunnington-Shore
Healthwatch County Durham Chair

See our latest annual report for 2021-22 and discover our areas of priority for 2022-23.

We are pleased to present our Annual Report for 2021-22. See our findings throughout the year and discover our areas of priority for 2022-23.

Share your views on our Annual Report with us. Get in touch on [email protected]

Download the Report

Back to Healthwatch County Durham Page

Children and Young Person’s Mental Health Report

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Our Children and Young Person’s Mental Health Report captures the views of children and young people in County Durham.

Healthwatch County Durham wanted to hear from children and young people about mental health. Prior to the research, we knew that mainstream services were stretched and this had been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, we took the approach of looking at a grass roots level; what do children and young people understand about mental health, what are their self-care and, if they could have just one thing to better support their mental health and wellbeing, what would that be?

Over the course of 2021 we engaged with over 900 children and young people with a wide range of activities and focus groups, online, face-to-face in social settings and in classrooms. We were greeted with honesty and an overwhelming sense of resilience, understanding and empathy.

The Health and Social Care Committee recognises that service improvement is required and plans are afoot to transform children and young person’s mental health services, with more timely access and increased funding. Healthwatch County Durham’s next steps will focus on how we can enable others to better support our children and young people, through sharing best practice and evidence-based self-help, while working closely with partner organisations and monitoring the County Durham situation.

Download the Report

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Dentistry Report March 2022

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How easy is it for patients to get treatment with an NHS dentist? Discover our latest report on access to dentistry

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we have seen a substantial increase in the number of people asking us for help or telling us about their experiences of trying to access NHS dental care.

This report has been written in response to many people contacting Healthwatch County Durham (HWCD) regarding the difficulties they were experiencing accessing an NHS dentist appointment. As well as working with stakeholders regionally, all the information we gather is shared with Healthwatch England and is used to enable them to show the national picture with stakeholders.

At the Healthwatch County Durham annual event in November 2021, Pauline Fletcher, the Dental Commissioning Lead North East and North Cumbria provided an update on the current position, including a lot of useful information about the NHS dental contract.

This report focuses on the current situation in County Durham, regarding accessing appointments and waiting times.

Out of a possible 54 dental practices the researchers spoke to 42 and asked a set of 7 questions. The questions were based on NHS appointment availability, availability of emergency treatment and accessibility. They are analysed in more depth later in the report.

The answers have given a clear picture that Country Durham has a similar situation to other counties in England. It shows that most Dental Practices are full and therefore cannot treat new patients. The exception to this in some cases, was children. From the practices that responded 35 could not take any new registered NHS patients, but 3 would register children only. A further 4 answered yes without clarification on whether it was adult or children’s registrations. However, emergency dental care for unregistered NHS patients was available in all practices.

Download the Report

Back to Healthwatch County Durham Page

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