Reports Hub

During late 2021, Healthwatch East Sussex undertook a public survey of East Sussex residents experiences of dental services in East Sussex since March 2020, as well as a Mystery Shopping exercise to explore which practices in the county were accepting NHS patients at that time.

Our survey focused on people’s satisfaction with different aspects of dental services (e.g. waiting times, advice, treatment, referrals and costs) before and during the pandemic, including their experiences of registration with dentists; access to NHS and private services; whether dental needs were met (including access to emergency support); awareness of dental costs and exemptions; and information on changes to dental services.

These reports provides a brief summary of the key themes identified in the responses to the survey and the Mystery Shopping exercise.

During October and November 2021, Healthwatch volunteers and staff reviewed all of the GP websites and out-of-hours phone messages across East Sussex for quality, clarity and presentation of information, with websites also assessed for ease of navigation. This report provides a summary of the findings, together with a number of recommendations.

Healthwatch in Sussex publish the final report ending our series nine of webinars capturing relatives and family carers experiences visiting their loved ones in care homes during the pandemic.

‘Staying connected with relatives and loved ones in residential settings – One Year On’ hosted on the 9^th November 2021 welcomed 42 attendees including health and care partners, regulators, providers and carers support organisations. Many of the family carers attended all nine webinars hosted throughout the year.

The webinars enabled family carers to:

• share their views and experiences with providers and health and care professionals, as well as
• receive timely updates on new guidance as it was implemented
• Raise the profile of Essential Carer role – nationally and locally
• Participate in Q & A sessions
• Access support; and
• So importantly, to have their voices heard

A video of the webinar is available to view here: https://youtu.be/CKxiiQnIDyQ 

You can read the final report which provides a summary of the discussion and actions via the link below.

A new report from Healthwatch East Sussex reveals that four out of five of patients discharged from local hospitals last winter reported a positive experience, but there were some aspects of discharge that could be developed and improved.

1,441 wellbeing checks were undertaken by Healthwatch volunteers and staff with patients discharged from hospital by telephone between August and November 2020.

We found that:

• 85% of discharged patients made favourable comments about their hospital stay and praised the professionalism, responsiveness and caring attitude of staff.
• Those with a support need who required assistance were signposted and referred to GPs, Community Hubs and other organisations.
• Communication with patients was the most common issue raised.
• Feedback from discharged patients highlighted the positive value attributed to follow-up checks, irrespective of support needs.
• Healthwatch will work with commissioners to understand and develop the hospital discharge process moving forwards.

Our report identifies 11 recommendations for East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust who run the hospitals that patients were discharged from, NHS Commissioners who contract local GPs and Healthwatch. The focus of these is embedding the learning with a view to improving the experience for patients before, during and after discharge.