News and reports

This Healthwatch England briefing discusses people’s experiences of urgent and emergency care (UEC) services from December 2020 to August 2022.

It mentions how Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay reported on four Emergency Departments across Devon in September 2021. At all four hospitals they found that people had gone to the emergency department because they could not access another service, such as the GP or NHS 111. In one visit to one of the emergency departments they found that over half (51%) of patients attending were there because they couldn’t see their GP.

In 2022, Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay held a series of meetings with the South West representative of the Royal Association for Deaf People to discuss various concerns that were being raised around access to British Sign Language (BSL) qualified interpreters. These concerns include:

• Interpreters to support appointments in hospital and GP surgeries
• Interpreters to support complaints process
• Access to information

What people have told us about health and social care
Find out in our quarterly Impact and Outcomes report how your feedback is helping NHS and social care services improve care in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay.

Each quarter you can find out:

which services people are telling us about
how people are feeling about health and care services
how Healthwatch are making a difference to care in your part of Devon
real life experiences people have shared through our website feedback centres
how we have helped people get the information they need, and the difference that has made
and how we are making a difference to our communities in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay.

You can download the report below for a details.

In 2021, Healthwatch Devon and North Dartmoor Primary Care Network (NDPCN) worked together to find out about the health and wellbeing needs of local people; mental health support was found to be particularly important to the community.

Following the 2021 engagement, NDPCN GP practices, health and social care partners, and other partners in the community, voluntary, and statutory sector wanted to find out more about people’s views on mental health services locally and Devon-wide.

You can download the report below for full details.

Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay (HWDPT) were asked by the NHS Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to assist in running focus groups, to find out how elective care waiting lists have impacted patients and how people would like these waiting lists to be addressed.

Every patient on a waiting list for medical care (who had provided an email address and consented to being contacted) was invited by the CCG to register for an online focus group. Invites were also sent via the Devon Virtual Voices Panel, and through the Healthwatch Assist network. Eight virtual focus groups were held via Zoom between 9 March and 8 April 2022.

You can download the report below for full details.

Here is our Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay Annual Report for 2022, containing all of our statutory activities from April 2021 to March 2022 and more.

A review of patient feedback received around services in Plymouth has recently been conducted and it was noted that there had been consistent feedback around access to CAMHS services during the Covid pandemic, most of it negative.

To better understand the issues being raised, it was decided by the Healthwatch Plymouth Steering Group to conduct further research in the form of a survey aimed at parents who had accessed Children’s and Young People services since 1 April 2020.

Confused about Long Covid? Find out the common symptoms and how to get support.

Do you know about your rights to language support in NHS settings?

This Patient Experience Summary covers the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.

This summary will focus on the feedback raised in Plymouth. The data for Torbay and Devon for the last 12 months is not sufficient to draw conclusions or observations, but issues raised have been similar. When looking at the Plymouth data specifically and comparing the amount of feedback received since 1 April 2018, we have seen an increase year on year.

People with high blood pressure are increasingly being asked to monitor their condition at home. Find out what people think of using technology to keep tabs on their health and how they think the NHS can improve support.

Take a look at our advice article on the organisations and groups that can support you if you’re grieving.