Advice and Information -
People have told us they can have problems registering with a GP. This article explains more about your rights and what do to if you are refused the right to register.Advice and Information -
Health issues unfortunately don't leave us alone at the weekend and people are often in need of medical assistance out of hours. Using NHS guidelines, we have provided some advice and information on where you can go for help when your GP is closed.Advice and Information -
Find out what support is available to help you when travelling to your GP, hospital or other NHS services.Advice and Information -
Take a look at our advice article on the organisations and groups that can support you if you’re grieving.Advice and Information -
If you are experiencing or feel at risk of domestic abuse, or are worried about someone who might be, find out where you can go for advice and help.Advice and Information -
Many people who provide unpaid care are unaware of their rights. Find out more about the help and support you are entitled to.Advice and Information -
The wait for planned medical care or surgery can be frustrating. That’s why you must get regular and accessible updates while you wait.Advice and Information -
Your mental wellness is as important as your physical health but seeking help can be daunting. Here's what to expect when you seek support for your mental health.Advice and Information -
Do you or a loved one need help with social care? Read the article below and find out answers to key questions about who can access adult social care and how to pay for it.Advice and Information -
Mental health problems are more common among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual (LGBTQIA+) people. If you are struggling, feel alone or need a little help, then check out our guide on how you can get the support you need.Advice and Information -
Confused about Long Covid? Find out the common symptoms and how to get support.Advice and Information -
Do you know about your rights to language support in NHS settings?Advice and Information -
Are you having trouble finding an NHS funded dentist? Read our tips on what to do if you’re facing problems.Advice and Information -
Are you struggling to find an NHS dentist? The new dental recovery plan might help you get the dental care you need.Advice and Information -
The new Pharmacy First scheme enables your local pharmacy to treat some common conditions with prescription-only medicines, without you visiting your GP. Find out everything you need to know.Advice and Information -
From 31 October 2023, GP surgeries must give patients online access to their new health record entries. Find out what information is in your record and how to access it.Advice and Information -
Did you know you can choose which hospital you go to when referred for a test, diagnosis, or treatment? Find out how.Advice and Information -
NHS social prescribing link workers can connect you to the right community groups and services to help support you.Advice and Information -
The usual processes the NHS follows to discharge you from hospital have changed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Here’s what you can expect when it’s time to leave hospital.Advice and Information -
The cost of living crisis has put many people under financial strain, and prescription costs are more than some can afford. Find out what help is out there to help you cover the cost of your medication.Advice and Information -
The Accessible Information Standard is mandatory for all organisations that provide National Health Service (NHS) or adult social care.Advice and Information -
Do you struggle to speak to your doctor about your medical concerns? You’re not alone. Take a look at our top tips to make the most out of your GP appointment.Report -
In October 2023, University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust’s (UHP) Royal Eye Infirmary (REI) service moved from its location at Derriford Hospital to a new purpose-built building in the International Business Park near to the Derriford Hospital Site. Earlier this year Healthwatch Plymouth (HWP) conducted visits to the REI to engage with patients around their experiences of the new facility. This engagement report collates and summarises this patient feedback.Report -
This report details our key activities for the last quarter, including how we have engaged with the public, a summary of the feedback we have collected, our reports, recommendations and any outcomes or impact made.Report -
Our national partner Healthwatch England’s 2023 – 24 annual report outlines how the public’s stories have changed care for the better, and the work they’re doing to make sure that the health and social care system puts patients at its very heart.Report -
This report details our key activities for the last quarter, including how we have engaged with the public, a summary of the feedback we have collected, our reports, recommendations and any outcomes or impact made.Report -
On this page is our national partner Healthwatch England’s pharmacy closures briefing report, after they sent a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to all 42 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England to investigate the issue of pharmacy closures. Read a brief summary of the key findings and recommendations for healthcare leaders below.Report -
Our national partner Healthwatch England’s report unpacks women’s experiences of cervical screening and sets our recommendations for healthcare leaders.
A summary of the report is below. You can download the full report and a large print version further down this page.Report -
Healthwatch England’s research unpacks people’s experiences of using Community Diagnostic Centres and lessons for expanding community-based care.Report -
Our Phase 2 survey report of Carers’ experiences provides valuable insight into the impact that caring for someone for more than 20 hours a week can have on Carers’ lives.
We heard from more than 200 Carers who live in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay who shared their experiences with us, following on from an earlier report published in November 2022. We also conducted a guided conversation with 17 individual Carers to help us understand in more detail how a Carer’s role was impacting on their everyday life and their emotional wellbeing.Report -
This report details our key activities for the last quarter, including how we have engaged with the public, a summary of the feedback we have collected, our reports, recommendations and any outcomes or impact made.Report -
Social care support can be transformative for disabled people – but as many as 1.5 million working-age Disabled people in England may not be getting the care they’re eligible for.
Our national partner Healthwatch England’s new research into social care for disabled people shows how transformative social care can be for those receiving it. But it also demonstrates the scale of unmet need. In the full report, Healthwatch outline their findings and provide recommendations to decision-makers.
16/07/2024
By Healthwatch EnglandReport -
Following the recovery of NHS Services after the Covid-19 pandemic, Healthwatch Plymouth held conversations with the Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) manager at University Hospital Plymouth NHS Trust (UHP) in late 2022 to see how we could collaboratively work with them around the findings from the Healthwatch England report. It was agreed for HWP to independently interview individuals via telephone contact who had recently been through the complaints process at UHP and who had consented to be contacted by HWP.
This report is the findings from those conversations, a brief summary of the findings and recommendations is below.
By Healthwatch in Devon Plymouth and TorbayReport -
This report describes the wide range of engagement, representation and impact undertaken by Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay in 12 months from April 2023 to March 2024. A brief summary is further down this page.Report -
This report details our key activities for the last quarter, including how we have engaged with the public, a summary of the feedback we have collected, our reports, recommendations and any outcomes or impact made.
By Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth, and TorbayReport -
This report details our key activities for the last quarter, including how we have engaged with the public, a summary of the feedback we have collected, our reports, recommendations and any outcomes or impact made.
By Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth, and TorbayReport -
Our report on Patient Experiences of Pharmacy Services, detailing a total of 141 experiences about Pharmacy Services across Devon, Plymouth and Torbay during the 18-month period. Issues raised by those surveyed include medication delays and supply problems that affect the prescription/repeat prescription service, patients not knowing when their medications are ready for collection, and phone calls going unanswered. We have shared the report and its findings with NHS stakeholders in Devon and made key recommendations for them.
By Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth, and TorbayReport -
This report details our key Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay activities for the last quarter, including how we have engaged with the public, a summary of the feedback we have collected, our reports, recommendations and any outcomes or impact made.
By Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth, and TorbayReport -
In the Spring and Summer of 2023, independent consumer champion Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth, and Torbay (HWDPT) were commissioned by NHS Devon to visit Emergency Departments (EDs) across Devon’s four Acute Hospital sites to speak to patients to better understand what informed and influenced their decision to attend ED. 511 people conversed with HWDPT during 34 visits at various times and days, which included daytime, evenings and weekends.
By Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth, and TorbayReport -
Healthwatch England report examining ten key areas of care, including GPs, dentists, hospitals, and social care. It is based on more than 65 thousand experiences recorded from all local Healthwatch organisations across the country – including from us here at Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay. It also includes recommendations and potential solutions for the NHSE, commissioners and service providers.Report -
This report describes the wide range of engagement, representation and impact undertaken by Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay over the past year.
By Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth, and TorbayReport -
Healthwatch England recently published their findings and a set of immediate actions for the Government and the NHS, in relation to the cost of living and the detrimental impact it is having on people’s decisions about their own health and wellbeing.
In light of these findings, we wanted to find out if the cost of living was having an impact on people in Devon, Plymouth and Torbay and if so, in what way.
60 people responded to the survey and the survey ran throughout March to May 2023.
By Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth, and TorbayReport -
This report presents findings from our December 2022 to January 2023 survey on men’s health and the feedback shared by 132 local men.
By Healthwatch in Devon, Plymouth, and TorbayReport -
NHS and social care services only make the best decisions if they listen to the people they care for. Read our national partner Healthwatch England’s Annual Report to Parliament to see how your feedback has helped decision-makers prioritise what matters most.Report -
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.Report -
Nearly 85,000 people in Devon provide unpaid care, with one third (33.4%) providing more than 20 hours of unpaid care per week. To learn more about the experiences of unpaid carers and the impact of providing care at home, Healthwatch developed a survey in conjunction with Devon Carers, Improving Lives Plymouth, and the Torbay Carers Service. These organisations provide a range of support services to unpaid carers.Report -
There are almost 370,000 people in employment in Devon, with the proportion of self-employed workers (14.7%) being higher than the national average (9.3%). The Covid-19 pandemic changed the way that many of us work; in spring 2022, 38% of working adults in the UK reported having worked from home at least once in the past seven days.
Healthwatch wanted to find out about the physical and mental impact of working from home, and how working from home has affected people’s work/life balance.Report -
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.Report -
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 informationReport -
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.