News and reports

Join us at Gateshead International Stadium for the Annual Joint Meeting of Healthwatch Gateshead and Healthwatch Newcastle on Thursday the 19th of September (1pm-3.30pm).

The NHS Integrated Care Board for the North East and North Cumbria is launching the BIG Conversation to find out what matters most to women and girls when it comes to their health.

Read our minutes from the Healthwatch Gateshead Committee Meeting on 10 June 2024.

This year, Healthwatch Gateshead has focused on reaching out further to people in their communities to support them and hear their views. Download our latest Annual Report to find about more about all the work we've done to support local communities and help your voice to be heard.

As the voice of local people using health and social care, we ensure service providers listen and influence them to make changes so their services better meet the needs of the community. Your involvement will be instrumental in shaping the very fabric of health and social care services in Gateshead.

Read our minutes from the Healthwatch Gateshead Committee Meeting on 02 April 2024.

Read our minutes from the Healthwatch Gateshead Committee Meeting on 17 Jan 2024.

Healthwatch Gateshead engaged with local residents to understand their experiences using pharmacies and specifically asked about:
• The reasons respondents visited their local pharmacy and the services they used.
• Any recent changes to the opening hours of local pharmacies that respondents were aware of and the impact, if any, these changes had.
• Local people’s awareness and usage of other pharmacies in the Gateshead area.
During a one month engagement period between 24th April and the 24th May 2023, residents of Gateshead shared their experiences using pharmacies in Gateshead.

Minutes of committee meeting held on 31 October 2023

People have been telling us about challenges they face getting NHS dentistry. As a result we are working with the NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB) in the North East and North Cumbria to better understand people’s experiences of dentistry in 2023.

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:

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.