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Healthwatch Northumberland feedback report March 2024

Your feedback March 2024

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland March 2024

In March the top issues we heard about were difficulties getting an appointment with a GP or a dentist, and the distance to travel to hospital appointments. Like the previous month we had a lot of positive comments about the quality of care received in hospitals. For the first time since we started providing these monthly reports, we also had a handful of positive comments about getting an appointment at a GP surgery in a reasonable timescale

What did we get up to?

We held our Here to Hear drop-in sessions in Bedlington, Alnwick and Morpeth and also attended the Prudhoe Health and Wellbeing event, Northumberland Parent Carers’ Forum Annual Conference, Vision Northumberland’s technology event and the Locality Coordinator’s event at Dalton Village Hall. Our online talk was delivered by Harrogate and District Foundation Trust on the Growing Healthy Northumberland 0-19 service.

Find out more in our March 2024 feedback report

Health and social care report Northumberland January 2024

January 2024 feedback

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland January 2024

Difficulties getting a GP appointment featured the most in this month’s feedback, although there was a notable number of comments praising the service patients had received from their GP. The distance to travel was raised as a concern around hospitals but again, there was a sizeable number of positive comments praising the quality of care received in hospital. The third most common issue raised was accessing NHS dentists, with complaints around getting an appointment being the most common.
What did we get up to?

January got off to a busy start with many one-off sessions in the community, over and above our regular Here to Hear sessions. These helped us to gather feedback about Health Visiting Services. This a major piece of work looking into what’s working well and not so well in order to feedback to the NHS.

We analysed what we heard from service users about experiences of getting dentistry work completed, which is our contribution to research into the state of dentistry across the whole of the North East and North Cumbria. This is a joint project with the other Local Healthwatch in the region.

We launched a recruitment campaign for board members and volunteers to join our team. If you are interested in volunteering with us find out more on our volunteering page.

Find out more in our January 2024 feedback report.

December 2023 feedback

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland December 2023

This month we received an equal number of positive and negative comments about the quality of GP services. Where people had a less happy experience, this was mainly difficulty getting an appointment or about poor service. People are still finding it very difficult to get an appointment with an NHS dentist, including having to travel outside of the area.

What did we get up to?

We attended our usual Here to Hear drop-in sessions and also a one-off session at Cramlington Hub. As part of our work on health visiting services, we went to Wentworth Leisure Centre to speak to parents and carers about their experiences. We also attended Northumberland County Council’s Family Hubs sessions in Alnwick, Blyth, Berwick and Hadston as part of this work.

The online session in December was from the NECA team who spoke about gambling awareness and support in the region.

Our new cost of living information booklet was distributed to organisations, venues and groups across the county. The booklet is a free resource which we have produced as part of our Signposting and Information Service.

Find out more in our December 2023 feedback report.

Health and social care report Northumberland November2023

What you told us: November 2023

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland November 2023

  • In November the main things you told us about were:
    GP services: Difficulty getting an appointment was again the top concern raised this month, although approximately a fifth of the feedback we received praised the quality of care from GP practices.
  • Dentists: Difficulty getting an appointment featured strongly again this month.
  • Hospitals (outpatients’ appointments): Long waiting times and the distance needing to travel to get to appointments were raised. There was also a fair proportion of positive comments around the quality of care received.
What did we get up to?

This month we were at a number of one-off events including Seghill Food Hub, Ponteland and Blyth Winter Warmer events, Prudhoe wellbeing event, Haltwhistle diabetes awareness event and the Forget-me-nots Christmas drop-in.

We also held an IT special event in Blyth with staff from Marine Medical Group to show patients how to use eConsult, help them register for GP online services and download the NHS app.

The online talk this month was from Stroke Association and it was well received by the members of the public and health professionals who attended.

We also started on a joint project with all the local Healthwatch in the North East and North Cumbria reviewing the state of NHS dentistry in the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board area.

Find out more in our November 2023 feedback report

Health and social care report October 2023

What you told us: October 2023

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland October 2023

This month the biggest issue, apart from difficulties getting an appointment at GP practices, has been poor communication by services. This is around prescriptions in particular, and the communication between patient, GP practice and pharmacy. There have also been communication issues with other services either not communicating with the patient or with each other, which has adversely affected the patient.

What did we get up to?

October was a busy month with an increased number of one-off sessions and events on top of our regular Here to Hear events. We were at Choppington Disability Group’s AGM, Blyth Wellbeing event, Silver Sunday and Mental Health Celebration event (also in Blyth), and Alnwick Garden’s Wellness event, all of which have been well attended and have enabled us to speak to many more people than usual.
Our AGM and listening event at East Bedlington Community Centre was well-attended and we received lots of positive feedback from guests.

This month’s online session on self-harm from Battle Scars was very popular, with our highest ever attendance since we began these sessions.

We ran an online campaign asking people to tell us what they think about their local pharmacy which generated a lot of feedback, almost exclusively positive, with many glowing references to Allendale
Pharmacy. This meant that for the first time since we started the monthly reports in July 2022, we received more positive feedback than negative.

Find out more in our October 2023 feedback report

Health and social care feedback Northumberland September 2023

What you told us: September 2023

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland September 2023

This month we heard from 268 people about health and social care services; either as a service user, or a carer or family member. The main issues were around getting a GP appointment and getting through to the surgery on the telephone. We did however hear a lot of praise for the quality of care once seen by healthcare professionals at the surgery.

We also heard that some people are not receiving all of their prescription medication from the pharmacy, where there are issues with supply. The third main area we had feedback on was mental health services, and how getting an appointment can be difficult, and communication could be better.

What did we get up to?

As well as our regular Here to Hear drop-ins in East Bedlington, Blyth, Morpeth, Prudhoe and Alnwick, we were out and about hearing from people at other events including a SeaFit event in Amble with the Fishermen’s Mission, Northumbria Cancer Patient and Carer Group’s Health and Wellbeing event in Haltwhistle, Queen Elizabeth High School Freshers’ Fair in Hexham and a drop-in session in Newbiggin.

Find out more in our September 2023 feedback report

Health and social care feedback Northumberland August 2023

What you told us: August 2023

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Health and social care feedback Northumberland August 2023

This month you told us that waiting times for GP appointments and poor communication from practices were an issue for you. We also had a lot of feedback about hospital services – waiting times, the distance you had to travel to hospital and communication issues – but you also praised the quality of care you received in hospital.

Once again we heard about the difficulties people are having trying to register with an NHS dentist. Read Healthwatch’s response to the annual NHS dental statistics for England.

Our online session in August was from the West Northumberland Living Well Service team, who told us more about social prescribing and how to access this free service.

Read more in our short report for August 2023.

Health and social care feedback Northumberland April 2023

What you told us: April 2023

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Health and care feedback Northumberland April 2023

The main issues we heard about in April were accessing GP services, and the quality of service when seen, hospital service and access to NHS dentists – we are still hearing from people about the lack of provision in Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Our main focus this month was passing on to the council and the NHS what we heard from you at our Here to Hear drop-in sessions. We promoted the COVID-19 spring booster vaccination programme and our public online info session this month was around disordered eating, with guests from Eating Distress North East.

Read our short report below to see at a glance who we heard from during the month and the services we heard about.

 

Healthwatch Northumberland report April 2023

Healthwatch Northumberland feedback February 2023

Feedback report February 2023

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Health and care feedback February 2023

Our monthly reports provide an overview of the feedback we have had and who we’ve been hearing from. In our February 2023 ‘at-a-glance’ report you can read some examples of positive and negative feedback we received and what our main focus has been throughout the month.

 

Healthwatch Northumberland feedback report February 2023

 

Tell us YOUR experiences

What you told us: November 2022

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What you told us November 2022

Our ‘at a glance’ monthly reports provide a summary of who we have been hearing from and what you have told us. What you tell us helps us build a picture of what is working well and where there are issues in the NHS and social care services we use here in Northumberland.

Often, we can get a quick response to your enquiry or signpost you to the right service. Some issues are already being looked at by other organisations and we pass on your comments and concerns to them so that they have as much feedback as possible from those using services, to help them make decisions and improvements to services.

There are some issues that we look into in more detail and set aside time and resources to investigate further and put together recommendations for change.

Read our feedback report for November 2022

 

Tell us about the services you and your family have used.