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Blog -
Healthwatch and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) are working together to hear your experiences of health and social care.
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Advice and Information -
Home from Hospital is a free service. It provides practical and emotional support to older people returning home from hospital in Newcastle. Support is flexible and tailored to a person's individual needs. -
Blog -
The Good Egg Partnership distributes Easter eggs to good causes throughout the north east. The last 35 Easter eggs of more than 1,700 handed out were allocated to Healthwatch Newcastle last week. -
Report -
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 is available to read here
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News -
This year our volunteer Raj will be presenting on stroke awareness on June 7. He will be talking about what a stroke is, risk factors, signs of a stroke and some ideas on how to support people following a stroke.
Raj is a part of the Stroke Association and worked on NHS Stroke wards. He also supports children and young people with their special needs in schools.
Following this presentation, our Volunteer and Engagement Officer Lesley Tweddell will ask for a vote of thanks and appreciation to all our volunteers for supporting the work of Healthwatch throughout the year.
If you would like to know more about the role of a volunteer in Healthwatch come along and get more information from our stall on the day. -
News -
If you would like to know more about Youthwatch,
please email-
Healthwatch Newcastle
info@healthwatchnewcastle.org.uk or
Text 07551052751 or Freephone 0808 801 0382
Healthwatch Gateshead
info@healthwatchgateshead.co.uk or
Text 07498503497 or Freephone 0800 038 5116 -
News -
Healthwatch Gateshead and Healthwatch Newcastle would like to understand:
- The impact of the cost of living on your physical, mental, and social health.
- Changes to your health and social care due to the cost of living.
- The impact of the cost of living on your interaction with health and social care services. -
News -
Healthwatch Volunteer Raj Takes Initiative to Raise Awareness of Strokes -
News -
Read all our Monthly Newsletters for 2023 , stay up to date with activities of your local Healthwatch. -
Blog -
Healthwatch Newcastle stands united with Newcastle City Council in their unwavering commitment to the White Ribbon campaign! -
News -
Don't miss our upcoming Online Forum featuring "Barnardo's Young Dads Service." This dedicated program offers vital support and guidance to young fathers navigating parenthood's challenges.
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Advice and Information -
With more than thirty recognised symptoms of menopause and growing awareness of the impact on day-to-day life, it can help to know what to look out for and what support is available. -
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 of your GP appointment. -
Advice and Information -
In a groundbreaking revelation, the latest report from Diabetes UK has sent shockwaves through the nation's healthcare landscape. The number of people living with diabetes in the UK has surpassed the 5 million mark for the first time, marking a significant milestone that demands our attention. This unprecedented figure not only highlights the scale of the diabetes epidemic but also underscores the urgent need for awareness, education, and proactive measures to tackle this growing public health challenge. -
Report -
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. -
News -
Following on from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) reports on Newcastle Upon Tyne NHS Hospital Trust. Healthwatch Gateshead and Healthwatch Newcastle, alongside Healthwatch Northumberland and Healthwatch North Tyneside have released a joint statement.
Please download the full statement below. -
News -
Read all our Monthly Newsletters for 2024 , stay up to date with information and activities from Healthwatch Newcastle. -
Report -
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. -
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. -
Advice and Information -
Find out what support is available to help you when travelling to your GP, hospital or other NHS services. -
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. -
Advice and Information -
When you need specialist NHS support, like hospital tests or treatment, you often need a referral from your GP first. Find out what this includes and what to expect. -
Blog -
Are you a patient at Parkway Medical Group in Chapel House, Newcastle? -
Advice and Information -
We’re supporting Cervical Cancer Prevention Week 17-23 January and encouraging women and people with a cervix not to ignore their invitation. Did you know, one in three eligible people don't attend cervical screening? It’s a test that saves lives. -
Blog -
It has been a contractual requirement for each GP practice since April 2016 to have an active and involved Patient Participation Group (PPG). -
Advice and Information -
We’ve put together some of our resources on this page to help you keep up to date.
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Report -
Between December 2013 and September 2014 our Champions carried out mystery shopping in GP practices throughout Newcastle. The aim was to find out the information GP practices gave about their procedures for compliments, comments and complaints, how clear that information was and how easy it was to find.
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Report -
In the early autumn of 2014 we carried out a mystery shopper exercise on the NHS Choices GP profile pages for the 35 GP practices in Newcastle upon Tyne. -
Report -
From July to December 2015 we carried out research into what people want when booking a GP appointment in Newcastle. A discrete choice experiment survey was developed in partnership with Northumbria University. -
Report -
Following the publication our ‘GP appointments: what do Newcastle patients want?’ report we wanted to better understand how people define the term ‘urgent’ and whether they define it differently in different circumstances.
We collaborated with Healthwatch Gateshead to carry out a short survey with the public in our respective local authority areas during the summer and autumn of 2016. -
Report -
We presented some major research projects, including local home care services, people’s preference when making a GP appointment and young people’s attitude to dental care, inviting people to think about the next steps. Delegates also shortlisted Healthwatch Newcastle’s priorities for 2016—17. -
Report -
The report from the first forum, held in February 2020. This forum supports and develops patient participation groups (PPGs) in Newcastle and Gateshead. -
Report -
Six GP practices in Outer West Newcastle - Denton Park Medical Group, Denton Turret Medical Group, Newburn Surgery, Parkway Medical Group, Throckley Primary Care Centre and Westerhope Medical Group - partnered with Healthwatch Newcastle to run a survey gathering patients’ views on additional services, accessing the practices and how COVID-19 affected their experience. -
Report -
It has been a contractual requirement for each GP practice since April 2016 to have an active and involved Patient Participation Group (PPG).
We set out to create a best practice award for PPGs aimed to increase and improve the involvement of patients in their GP practice. Several GP practices in Newcastle and Gateshead participated in our pilot from autumn 2019 to February 2021. This interim report outlines what we did. -
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.