1. Report -

    During October to December 2020, we heard from 910 patients, carers, and relatives regarding their experiences with local health and social care services. This report outlines the key themes, findings and recommendations that emerged from our conversations.
  2. Report -

    We heard the experiences of over 900 residents during July- September. Find out what they told us about local health and care services.
  3. Report -

    We developed a survey which saw over 1,000 people in June and July share their experiences about access to health and care services, their mental health and how easy it was to get information to stay safe and informed during the pandemic.
  4. Report -

    We held Feedback Forums aiming to understand the experiences of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities in Lewisham during COVID-19. Carried out in June and July 2020, the four engagement sessions focused on a number of themes including access, communication and impact on mental health and emotional wellbeing
  5. Report -

    At the beginning of April, following the Government's guidance regarding COVID-19, We adapted the way we engaged with residents to include collecting online reviews, virtual Feedback Forums, phone calls with Lewisham residents and directly through our Digital Feedback Centre.
  6. Advice and Information -

    The Care Act 2014 is a law that came into action in April 2015 that sets out how people’s care and support is approached by councils.
  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 -

    we teamed up with our Healthwatch colleagues in Bexley and Greenwich to be part of the first ever joint Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham Learning Disability Big Health Day. Read our report to find out what people think of mental health services.
  9. Report -

    Last year, residents told us that under the NHS Long Term Plan they would like better access to trustworthy information about health and wellbeing issues. Find out what we learnt when we mystery shopped local libraries.
  10. 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.
  11. Report -

    The aim of the research was to obtain the views and (LTP) experiences of Lewisham residents to support the local implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan. We carried out local engagement and enabled people including seldom heard communities to have their say in how the NHS can better take care of them and how the care they received can be improved.
  12. Report -

    We visited Fieldside care home to talk to staff and residents about the care on offer at the home. This report details our findings and recommendations for improvements.
  13. Report -

    We visited The harbour mental health crisis cafe to talk to staff and visitors about the care and service on offer. This report details our findings.
  14. Report -

    The six Healthwatch in south east London engaged with residents to ensure their voices will help shape the local implementation of the NHS Long Term Plan. The public were asked to give their views on improving local services; share their ideas on how people can live healthier lives and what improvements they think could be made to help people access services quickly.
  15. 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.
  16. Report -

    Exam stress is the biggest concern for young people in Lewisham. Children and Young People’s (CYP) mental health and wellbeing is a national and local priority. Find out what people told us in our latest report.
  17. Report -

    Last year, Beechcroft Care Home received a "requires improvement" rating by the Care Quality Commission. The care home was also flagged up by the Lewisham Safeguarding Adults Board. Therefore, we decided to carry out an Enter and View there to gather the views of the residents and staff members.
  18. Report -

    In our role as the patient voice we know that men share less feedback about health and care services than women.
    We ran this project to find out how men in Lewisham look after their mental health and what stops them from speaking up about their issues.
  19. Report -

    /report/2018-07-31/men-talk-health
  20. Report -

    We embarked on a project which built on our previous work, to see whether patient experience has improved following the introduction of AIS. We also assessed local implementation of the Standard.
  21. Report -

    We carried out Enter and View visits at University Hospital Lewisham (UHL) to assess how the AIS has been implemented. We made two separate visits to the Accident & Emergency, Ear, Nose and Throat, Ophthalmology and Ambulatory Care departments at UHL.
  22. 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.
  23. Report -

    During the last year, we carried out Food for Thought - a project wanting to find out how much young people in Lewisham understood about healthy eating. Residents had told us that they felt this was a major issue for us to look into. The borough has a high proportion of children identified at risk of obesity.
  24. Report -

    We visited Brymore House to talk to residents and staff about the care they received. This report contains our findings and recommendations we put to the service after our visit.
  25. Report -

    Across Lewisham, there is a growing demand for residential and nursing provision for older people, as well as ‘considerate unmet need’ around carers’ provision in the borough. In light of this we embarked on a project across the London Borough of Lewisham looking into the social care needs and experiences of the population.
  26. Report -

    We carried out a visit looking at the care and support provided at 55 Broadfield Road, Catford by Waterfield Supported Homes. The service provides personal care, support and accommodation for five people with mental health needs. We spoke with residents, family members and staff about their experience of the residential care home.
  27. News -

    Research published in March 2022 by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found that two thirds of unpaid carers view a lower standard of care during the COVID-19 crisis as unacceptable, even with the massive pressures that care services and carers are under.
  28. Advice and Information -

    The NHS in England has published a ten-year plan setting its priorities for the future.
  29. Advice and Information -

    All London residents can now create a personalised care plan that works for them.
  30. 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.
  31. Report -

    We delivered a workshop around the Five Ways to Wellbeing and the importance of mental health. Evidence suggests that these five steps can help to improve our mental wellbeing. Here is what we found out.
  32. Report -

    We visited Manley Court to talk to staff and residents about the care and service they offer. This report contains our findings and recommendations we put to the service after our visit.
  33. Report -

    We visited Penerley Lodge care home to talk to staff and residents about the care and service they offer. This report contains our findings and recommendations put to the service after our visit.
  34. Report -

    We visited Welcome Care home and spoke to staff and residents about the care and service they provide. This report contains our findings and recommendations put to the service after our visit.
  35. Report -

    We carried out a research project to assess patients’ and carers’ experiences of being discharged from hospital. We made three separate visits to the discharge lounge at University Hospital Lewisham (UHL) where we spoke with staff, patients, carers and family members.
  36. 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.
  37. Report -

    We explored young people's attitudes and experiences toward sexual health and healthy relationships, in the hope that it would raise awareness around the services that are available, the laws around healthy teenage relationships.
  38. Report -

    Healthwatch Lewisham is proud to share our See Hear Now report which explores issues of access to health and wellbeing services for people with sensory impairments and learning disabilities.
  39. Advice and Information -

    The Lewisham Wellbeing Map is an interactive, community-led tool to help people find local locations and activities where they can connect, socialise, be active or learn in the London Borough of Lewisham.
  40. Report -

    We joined forces with Healthwatch Bromley to host a self care matters event to raise awareness of the importance of self care and managing health conditions. Read our report on the day.
  41. Report -

    This report documents the findings of the research, which took place from February and June 2016. The data was collected by visiting 10 sample pharmacies distributed across four different localities in Lewisham to ensure an even
    geographical coverage.
  42. Report -

    This study was conducted by Healthwatch’s Community Engagement Officer, who visited 5 food banks across the boroughs of Bromley and Lewisham. Those in attendance were informally interviewed about their experiences of accessing health and social care services and the circumstances which has caused them to access community services in the borough.
  43. Report -

    In late 2015, Healthwatch Lewisham engaged with communities that don’t speak English as their first language including Vietnamese, Tamil, Polish, Turkish and Refugee groups. We engaged with 95 individuals which covered a broad range of demographics. Many people engaged with were parents or carers and many recognised themselves as being disabled.
  44. Report -

    Through this report, Healthwatch Bromley and Lewisham draws attention to the experiences of access to health and social care services faced by members of the Polish community living in Lewisham.
  45. Report -

    Through this report, Healthwatch Lewisham draws attention to the experiences of access to health and social care services faced by members of the refugee community living in Lewisham.
  46. Report -

    Through this report, Healthwatch Lewisham draw attention to experiences of access to health and social care services faced by members of the Tamil community living in Lewisham.
  47. Report -

    Through this report, Healthwatch Lewisham draws attention to the experiences of access to health and social care services faced by members of the Turkish community living in Lewisham.
  48. Report -

    This report presents the findings that emerged through our engagement. The recommendations that are provided, were led by the young people themselves and are included to support decision making and commissioning of services for them.
  49. Report -

    Through this report, Healthwatch Bromley and Lewisham draw attention to experiences of access to health and social care services faced by members of the Vietnamese community living in Lewisham.
  50. Report -

    We attended this event to raise awareness of the Self Care week and importance of self-care and to encourage stakeholders to take part in the campaign and to encourage self-care to their service users.