1. Advice and Information -

    People have told us they can have problems registering with a GP. This article explains more about your rights and what do to if you are refused the right to register.
  2. Advice and Information -

    Find out what support is available to help you when travelling to your GP, hospital or other NHS services.
  3. Advice and Information -

    With more and more appointments happening online, we've put together some tips on how to get the most out of the virtual health and care appointments both for patients and health and care professionals.
  4. Advice and Information -

    Find out how health services are changing in response to coronavirus (COVID-19) and what that means for your care.
  5. Report -

    Get the findings from our Digital Exclusion report December 2021 in an easy-to read infographic.
  6. Report -

    For this research project, we engaged with people who are more likely to be digitally excluded to gain a better understanding of how this might impact their experience with health and care services.
  7. Report -

    In December 2019, we carried out three Enter and View visits at the Oakview Family Practice as we regularly receive feedback that patients in Lewisham face difficulties accessing GP appointments.
  8. Report -

    Residents regularly tell us that GP appointments are difficult to access. In 2019, we carried out three visits to the GP Extended Access (GPEA) Service, which has been created to make more appointments available in Lewisham. The Enter and View visits gave us the chance to understand patients’ experiences of the service provided by One Health Lewisham and whether it was helping to improve access for residents.
  9. Report -

    Through our Lewisham Independent Health Complaints Advocacy Service, we were pleased to find several local examples of good practice in the provision of the complaints information. However, the quality of the website content was inconsistent so we embarked on a project to assess the existence and standard of information on practice websites.
  10. Report -

    As part of our AIS project, we engaged with 12 GP surgeries in the borough, to understand how they have complied with AIS. We chose to focus on these selected GPs as they had a high number of patients with sensory and learning disabilities.
  11. Advice and Information -

    The AskFirst app supports patients to get the right healthcare they need at the right time. The app is available to all patients in Lewisham.
  12. Report -

    We carried out an audit of local GP out of hours information for patients. A summary of the findings can be found by clicking here.
  13. Report -

    Through our Patient Experience Programme, Healthwatch Lewisham was able to capture 1,177 patient reviews about local health and social care services between July – September 2021. Find out about what local residents told us about the health and care they receive by reading our report.
  14. Report -

    The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way people access their GP with the further development of remote triage and booking systems. Service delivery in primary care continues to undergo changes and Healthwatch Lewisham wanted to understand what residents’ experiences have been like of since the national lockdown restrictions were lifted on 19 July 2021.
  15. Report -

    HWL Patient Experience Report Q3 summarising patient experience gathered that quarter.
  16. Report -

    Healthwatch Lewisham Annual Report 2021-2022
  17. Advice and Information -

    ‘Because We All Care’ encourages more people to feedback on their care. The next phase of our joint campaign with CQC is planned to start at the end of August. The phase will target people with long term conditions, and we will be taking a specific look at the barriers people face to getting specialist support via their GPs.

    Organisations such as ours are aware this has been going on for way too long.
  18. Report -

    Healthwatch Lewisham is proud to be presenting the Quarter 1 Report from 2022-2023. The report details the work we have done for the patient experience programme. This report is informative and gives great insight into the health and social care needs of the people within our community.
  19. Advice and Information -

    Patient Participation Groups (PPGs) are generally made up of a group of volunteer patients, the practice manager and one or more of the GPs from the practice. Each GP Practice is required to have a PPG.

  20. Advice and Information -

    King's Fund developed helpful information about how GPs in England are set up and commissioned.
  21. Report -

    Patient Experience report Q2 2022/23 summarises residents' feedback on health and social care services.
  22. Advice and Information -

    An interactive Wellbeing Map packed with local activities, events and locations in South East London has been produced.
  23. Advice and Information -

    The best way to help protect your child against severe illness from polio, flu, measles, mumps, rubella, and other childhood diseases is to get them up to date with their routine vaccinations.

    If you or your child are not registered with a GP, they can still get free vaccinations – contact a GP surgery.

  24. Advice and Information -

    Do you #KnowTheHigh5 symptoms of bowel cancer?

  25. Advice and Information -

    We are inviting feedback from Lewisham residents about their experience of GPs, Pharmacies, and local Hospitals.
  26. Report -

    Healthwatch Lewisham is proud to be presenting the Quarter 3 Report from 2022-2023. The report is a general overview of the work we have done for the Patient Experience programme, within the last three months and gives great insight into the health and social care needs of the people within our community.
  27. Report -

    Healthwatch Lewisham Annual Report 2022-2023.
  28. Advice and Information -

    Phoenix Community Housing are hosting a free Health and Wellbeing fair, with access to health and wellbeing advice, careers support, fitness information, wellbeing activities and more! Healthwatch Lewisham will also be there on the day with an information stall.
  29. Report -

    We engaged with 640 Lewisham residents between January and March 2023 to understand what they felt worked well and what could be improved about their health and social care services.

    This is what they told us.
  30. Report -

    From April to June 2023, Healthwatch Lewisham compiled over 1,000 reviews on patient experiences in GPs, hospitals, and other health services. Lewisham residents responded to how they were treated by hospital staff, quality of treatment, and appointment availability.
  31. Report -

    From July – September 2023, Healthwatch Lewisham has compiled over 1,000 reviews of and conducted over 40 visits to local healthcare services. Lewisham residents responded to how they were treated by hospital staff, quality of treatment, and appointment availability
  32. Report -

    We have been working on a report into the health experiences of transgender and non-binary people in Lewisham. In this report we dive into their experiences, to find out how services can be made better.
  33. Advice and Information -

    Do you struggle to speak to your doctor about your medical concerns? You’re not alone. Take a look at our top tips to make the most out of your GP appointment.