Our insight reports

We’ve heard nearly 3,000 experiences of health and social care from the people of Surrey in the past year: we hear the good and the not so good, and share these experiences to make sure people’s voices are heard. In our December insight, and at the beginning of a challenging winter we want to celebrate the good work of so many people providing health and social care in Surrey, and pass on the positive feedback and thanks of local residents to everyone involved in their care.

The purpose of this visit was to listen to the views and experiences of patients and staff at Greathed Manor Care Home.

Our latest Insight bulletin summarises key themes we've heard throughout November 2022, including praise and thanks, an update regarding dentistry, wait-time management and learning from grassroot providers. We also provide key information about our recent and future engagement sessions.

Our latest Insight bulletin summarises key themes we've heard throughout October 2022, including communication, hospital pharmacies and the unexpected costs of health care.

This summer we published our report “Waiting for hospital care” and requested responses from each of the 4 main hospitals within Surrey Heartlands. We have now received all 4 responses and have brought these together in this report. This report will also be shared, including to the Healthwatch England library and with Surrey Heartlands Joint Intelligence Group (JIG).

Patients are crying out for regular, proactive, individualised updates or reassurance, however brief. Following our report and the responses, we hope to see more initiatives aimed to meet this need in the future.

The purpose of the visit was to listen to the views and experiences of patients and staff at Elmfield House Care Home.

Our latest Insight bulletin summarises key themes we've heard throughout September 2022, including health inequalities and GP access, urgent and emergency care, and mental ill-health.

Our latest Insight bulletin summarises key themes we've heard throughout August 2022, including cost of living concerns and ongoing difficulties accessing GPs.

Our latest Insight bulletin, this month focusing on what local people have shared with us about GP Practices.

This visit was part of our work with Surrey County Council, Surrey Heartlands and CQC on our programme visits to care homes across Surrey and we will be carrying out one visit per month during 2022/23.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout June 2022.

In Surrey around 100,000 people are currently waiting for hospital treatment and this figure is not expected to start falling until 2024. Along with neighbouring local Healthwatch, we developed a questionnaire to hear the experiences of those who are waiting for hospital care.

This report details our key findings and provides insight that will enable services to support those waiting and minimise the harm of long waits.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout May 2022.

We continue to hear from people across Surrey who are struggling to access NHS dentistry and how the cost to access private care is a barrier which could also lead to further health complications and widen health inequalities.

A one page summary of our report: How people find advice and support to live well in the early years after dementia diagnosis.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout March 2022.

All local acute trusts and Surrey County Council have provided full written responses to our recommendations to our report - Carers' Experiences of Hospital Discharge.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout January 2022.

The purpose of the visit was to listen to the views and experiences of patients at Shrewsbury Court. The visit was prompted by discussions with the Joint Strategic Commissioning Convener - Learning Disability and Autism. We also had discussions with Surrey and Borders Partnership and the Care Quality Commission. The visit enabled us, as an independent organisation, to get a broader range of experiences from patients and staff, from a lay perspective.

We are consistently hearing from people across Surrey who are struggling to access NHS dentistry and are finding that the advice on how to access treatment on NHS.uk is incorrect or not up to date.

This report highlights some of the stories we have heard over the past year.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing says thank you and celebrates some of the positive stories we've heard about the things that matter to people when it comes to their health and social care.

People have been telling us about the frequency in which they are needing care which is putting additional pressure on the patient as well as the services they are using. People are also trying to access treatment at settings which are not the most appropriate to their needs.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout November 2021.

Over 16,000 people in Surrey are living with dementia, and this number is expected to rise rapidly in coming years.

The report shines a light on how well people and their carers connect with the support and services designed to help them live well in the years after diagnosis, and how commissioners and providers can support the services that are of most value to the people of Surrey.

A one page summary of our report: How people find advice and support to live well in the early years after dementia diagnosis.

This is the plain text version.

We were invited to the Children. Families and Lifelong Learning Select Committee in October 2021, to feedback what we’d heard about children and young people’s needs regarding their emotional wellbeing and mental health, the barriers to this, and any feedback on the new emotional wellbeing and mental health service.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout October 2021.

This project was undertaken to investigate the experience of Discharge to Assess from the perspective of Carers of those admitted to hospital. Our aim is that this insight will guide development and implementation of the D2A programme to maximise safe, successful hospital discharges. This was a joint project between Action for Carers and Healthwatch Surrey.

A one page executive summary of our report including conclusions and recommendations, with quick links to two patient experience videos.

A one page executive summary of our report including conclusions and recommendations, with quick links to two patient experience videos.

This is the plain text version.

People have increasingly been telling us about their experiences of seeking treatment for problems with their eyes and how different health services integrate. This report is designed to highlight the difficulties that people have shared in receiving care for their eye conditions.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout August 2021.

The pandemic triggered a rapid switch to remote consultations and an increased use of online communications in health and social care. While this has worked well for some people and some services, there have also been frustrations, worries and difficulties for some in accessing care.

We reviewed over 200 stories about people’s experiences of remote consultations that were shared with us between June 2020 and March 2021.

Insight Bulletin - July 2021
One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout July 2021.

During the pandemic, hospital appointments were inevitably delayed. On the whole Surrey residents were very stoic about this, understanding that the NHS was under unprecedented pressure and accepted service cancellations; indeed, some people chose to cancel appointments themselves.

However, as time went on and lockdown eased last summer some people started to feel frustration and questioned when they would get seen. They had been told their treatment was delayed or cancelled but had not been given any information about what would happen next.

Would their treatment be rescheduled? What would happen next?

This report summarises the responses from the hospitals to our recommendations based on NHS guidelines.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout June 2021.

Between January-May 2021, we have heard from 72 people about their experiences of accessing and receiving dental treatment.

This report has been grouped into themes arising from insight shared with Healthwatch Surrey and contain some examples of each theme.

We reviewed our insight into people’s experiences of pregnancy loss and this report highlights the emotional consequences of miscarriage and the importance of compassionate care to support recovery and protect mental health.

It also includes recommendations that we would like providers to consider to improve the experiences of people in Surrey going forward.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout May 2021.

This report seeks to understand the value of Day Centres for their regular users.

During the first wave of the covid vaccination programme providers received a substantial volume of calls from people asking about their vaccination.

To help prevent second vaccinations triggering a similar wave we ran a snap survey before the programme began, asking people what they wanted to know about their second vaccination.

In the last 6 months (August 2020 - January 2021), we have seen an increase in enquiries about dentistry. This reports highlights the themes we've been hearing about.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout February 2021.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout January 2021.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch Surrey is to listen to the views of local people about their health and social care and to share these views with the organisations who make decisions about local services.

We shared what we and and key local organisations Age UK and Surrey Coalition, have heard about Adult Social Care complaints at the Adults and Health Select Committee in December 2020. This is the published report that was shared.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout December 2020.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout November 2020.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout October 2020.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout September 2020.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout August 2020.

In June 2020, we conducted a snap poll with 46 Surrey residents on:

- What changes they want to see in the way health or social care are managed in the future
- Their message to the people responsible for making recovery happen
- Steps they had taken to look after themselves during the pandemic

In June 2020, we conducted a snap poll with 46 Surrey residents on:
- What changes they want to see in the way health or social care are managed in the future
- Their message to the people responsible for making recovery happen
- Steps they had taken to look after themselves during the pandemic
The sample was small but some of the key findings reflect what we’ve heard from our own and our partners’ wider consultations and are particularly interesting in light of the changes to lockdown planned for early July 2020.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout July 2020.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout June 2020.

One of the statutory duties of Healthwatch is to obtain the views of local people regarding their needs for, and experiences of, local care services and importantly to make these views known.

This briefing summarises key themes we've heard throughout May 2020.

In May 2020 we ran a survey asking local people about their experiences of health and social care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is a report based on what people have told us.

This is a summary of the COVID-19 Survey Report.

This is a summary report of the Maternity Voices Project.

About 10,000 people in Surrey are LGBTQ - this is about 1.3% of the population.
We wanted to reach out to LGBTQ people because they are at risk of health inequalities; they are not named as a priority group in the Surrey Health and Wellbeing Strategy, so we wanted to make sure that their voices are heard.

The House of Commons Health Select Committee launched an inquiry in July 2019 into dental services, looking at a broad range of topics.

This report summarises what we've heard from people in Surrey and the findings were reported to the Select Committee.

In March 2019, Healthwatch Surrey visited Warrengate Nursing Home to listen to the views and experiences of people who live and work within the home.

The visit was prompted by feedback that we had received, and after discussions with the Care Quality Commission. It enabled us to get a broader range of experiences from residents, relatives, and staff.

There are lots of things to consider when getting ready to leave hospital, but it can be difficult to know what those things are.

This checklist is for patients, for trusted contacts or carers to use when discussing patient discharge with hospital staff.

Surrey Safeguarding Adults Board (SSAB) commissioned Healthwatch Surrey to gain rich insight into people's experience of safeguarding and to identify best practice and challenges (what works for people, what doesn't, what success looks like).

This report includes a summary of interviews conducted, recommendations and what we learned.

The Surrey Health and Wellbeing Board has identified 'helping people die well' as a key focus for Surrey's 10-year strategy. A Surrey-wide end-of-life care partnership is working to understand the current picture and identify opportunities to work collaboratively.

Healthwatch Surrey is giving care home residents a voice to share their experiences of advance care planning to help more people achieve good end-of-life care.

Senior leaders in local NHS and care services recognise the important role carers play and have committed to ensuring that carers are identified and supported.

With this in mind, Healthwatch Surrey wanted to explore what it's like to be a carer, the advantages and disadvantages of registering as a carer and the benefits of being part of a carers' community.

In January, the NHS released their Long Term Plan, a strategy to guide its progression over the next 10 years. The Long Term Plan sets out areas the NHS will focus on to achieve this, in light of what works well and what needs improvement.

NHS England asked local NHS areas to set out how they will implement the Long Term Plan and the independence, networks and expertise of Healthwatch was called upon by the NHS to influence the implementation of these plans. This report supplements the existing Citizen Engagement programme of Surrey Heartlands Health & Care Partnership (Surrey Heartlands).

In December 2019, we received a detailed response from Surrey County Council to our Care at Home report - 'Can you hear me?'

As part of Healthwatch Surrey's 3-year strategic priorites, we initiated our Care at Home project to answer the question "Do care at home users have a voice?".

Throughout the project, we conducted in-depth interviews with a total of 42 people receiving care at home, 14 care workers and 12 care agency managers or coordinators.

Following our findings, we had informal discussions with commissioners at Surrey County Council about our findings and recommendations.

A report based on what people with learning disabilities have told us and the perspective of parents and carers. Easy read version.

A report based on what people with learning disabilities have told us and the perspective of parents and carers.