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Healthwatch Gateshead held its first Annual Event on Tuesday 11 November 2014 at 10 am -12:30 noon at, Gateshead Civic Centre. It was decided to open the event up to members of the public and stakeholders with the view of engaging with as many people as possible. -
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First annual report of Healthwatch Gateshead -
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Gateshead Council issued budget consultation papers, covering Adult Social care, Children
Services and Public Health. -
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It has been a year of significant change for Healthwatch Gateshead for both the board and the staff team. -
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Listening event covering 8 topics for discussion. This report details residents views, comments and suggestions put directly to health and social decision makers in Gateshead. -
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Telephone Mystery Shopping Project 30 September 2016
GP Practices Across Gateshead -
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This report outlines the key activities undertaken by Healthwatch Gateshead to support, promote and encourage residents to have a stronger voice in their health and social care by either being the representative of diverse communities or by providing intelligence – including evidence from people’s views and experiences – to influence the policy, planning, commissioning and delivery of health and social care. -
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Our annual report detailing our work for the financial year 2015-16 -
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Part of the local Healthwatch programme is to carry out Enter and View visits. Local Healthwatch representatives carry out these visits to health and social care services to find out how they are being run and make recommendations where there are areas for improvement. The Health and Social Care Act allows local Healthwatch authorised representatives to observe service delivery and talk to service users, their families and carers on premises such as hospitals, residential homes, GP practices, dental surgeries, optometrists and pharmacies -
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Healthwatch Gateshead carried out some detailed work on patients experience on the discharge process from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead -
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Healthwatch Gateshead (HWG) was receiving anecdotal comments on access to GPs and Out of Hours Provision. We acknowledged that there appears to be a common theme both regionally and nationally and we wanted to try and establish a clearer picture of how things are working for the residents of Gateshead -
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Our annual report detailing our work for the financial year 2016-17. -
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Healthwatch Gateshead activity report from September 2016 - March 2017. Presented to Overview and Scrutiny Committee March -
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Our report on communication methods and support from providers for people with hearing loss. -
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A joint report with Healthwatch Newcastle on what urgent care means to local people. -
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This was the first joint conference between Healthwatch Newcastle and Healthwatch Gateshead. We discussed our recent research, which included looking at people’s experience of education, health and care (EHC) plans in Newcastle and at how residents are involved in decisions about their own care and in how their care home is run.
Delegates also shortlisted Healthwatch Newcastle’s priorities for 2017—18. -
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During the autumn of 2017 Healthwatch Gateshead and Healthwatch Newcastle gathered the views and experiences from people, and their carers, who have been through the NHS continuing healthcare (CHC) process. -
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Healthwatch Gateshead annual report 2017-18 -
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This joint conference between Healthwatch Newcastle and Healthwatch Gateshead examined the principles, approaches and methods we use to engage with the public. -
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During autumn 2018 the Local Government Association (LGA) asked people to think about the future of adult social care and support. As part of this we asked the views of Gateshead residents. The responses received are in this document, and also formed part of the response from Gateshead’s Health and Wellbeing Board, which was submitted to government. -
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During autumn 2018 we investigated how proposed cuts to adult social care funding by Gateshead Council might impact on services users and their carers. -
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Our annual report detailing our work for the financial year 2018-19. -
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During autumn 2019 we used a variety of methods to engage with people about their experiences of Adult Social Care Direct in Gateshead -
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We ran a questionnaire during spring 2020 to find out how young people felt about the way health professionals treated them. We used ‘You’re Welcome’ criteria and feedback as guidance (quality criteria set out by the Department of Health and Social Care). -
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Healthwatch Gateshead, working in partnership with the Northeast and North Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB), engaged with children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and their families (CYP&F) to understand their experiences across education, health, and social services. The feedback from the CYP&F will feed into the joint commissioning strategy in Gateshead to help ensure the strategy reflects local needs. -
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14 October 2020 -
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Healthwatch Gateshead and Healthwatch Newcastle recently engaged with local residents to understand experiences and opinions of the North East Ambulance Service. We wanted to understand public perceptions of the service, what trust means to the public, and overall levels of trust felt towards NEAS.
Overall, feedback was positive, however, most of those we consulted felt that they could not fully trust NEAS. Specific elements of trust were identified and included:
- Reliability, Availability, and Responsiveness
- Delivering a High Standard of Care
- Integrity and the Alignment of Words & Actions
- Patients’ Safety
Our full report will be available to read here
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Healthwatch Gateshead and Healthwatch Newcastle undertook a joint research project to engaged with retirement-age residents of Gateshead and Newcastle to understand their experiences of loneliness and isolation. The project focused on three key areas including:
• Any factors people felt contributed to feelings of loneliness & isolation and its prevalence in people’s lives.
• Awareness and use of local services that focused on reducing loneliness and isolation.
• What worked well and areas for development.
We collected data from the survey from January 2023 to April 2023, and circulated both a digital survey and a paper-based survey format.
The key findings are:
• Loneliness can occur to anyone, and in particularly felt by those aged between 65 and 74, are women, and are carers.
• Loneliness is not simply a symptom of getting older but is instead prevalent when the needs of older people are not effectively taken care of. This is especially important in terms of access and mobility, including travel routes and venues for activities.
• Loneliness is something often felt for a long period of time and felt more actively in those aged between 65 and 74, possibly due to recent retirement and bereavement.
• Social activities are often the most successful in engaging older people, and community-based groups are well-received.
• Users who engage with some services are more likely to engage with multiple, services though there is a high rate of respondents here who do not participate at all.
• Key issues preventing potential users from engaging with services are poor transport options and a lack of development of local facilities.
• There is interest in specific activities, like physical fitness and arts activities for some people within some communities.
Our key recommendations are:
• Support those leaving the workforce in adjusting to the changes that retirement brings.
• Work with communities to create community action plans to make sure local facilities are being utilised effectively and for the benefit of local communities.
• Improve service infrastructure to ensure maximum reach and accessibility
• Establish a focus group or engagement group to help services better understand how to reach older people.
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The sudden rise in energy prices and accompanying increase in inflation in 2022 led to a big leap in the cost of living for people in the UK and wage growth since summer 2021 had not kept pace with inflation. Added to this, inflation has been higher in essential goods and services such as food prices. The cost-of-living crisis has dropped out of the news over the summer, but Citizens Advice Bureau Newcastle reports that there has been no drop-off in requests for support, especially around financial matters, and material support. -
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Healthwatch Gateshead received intelligence from the Gateshead Health and Wellbeing Board that users of the Crawcrook, Rowland’s Gill, Grange Road & Blaydon GP practices had expressed concern and disappointment with the services they received at these sites, and these comments led Healthwatch Gateshead to focus on three issues in particular: