Healthwatch West Sussex Annual Report for 2022-23
Key themes have been access to GP services and NHS dentistry, where we have highlighted the particular issues of residents in West Sussex. All this work and more will continue as changes within the health services develop.
Our year in review
Reaching out
5,139 people shared their experiences of health and social care services with us, helping to raise awareness of issues and improve care.
5,750 people came to us for clear advice and information about topics such as mental health and the cost of living crisis.
Making a difference to care
We published 31 reports and spotlights about the improvements people would like to see to health and social care services.
Our most popular report was Exploring Low Uptake of Bowel Screening by Men in Rural West Sussex which highlighted the struggles of men’s reluctance to seek medical support.
Health and care that works for you
We’re lucky to have 54 volunteers, who gave up 231 days to make care better for our community.
We’re funded by our local authority. In 2022-23 we received: £332,919. This figure includes other services in addition to Healthwatch, which is 3.5% more than the previous year.
We currently have 6 staff who help us carry out this work.
How we’ve made a difference this year
- Supporting our local NHS in designing new personalised care of Sussex Muscular-Skeletal Services (MSK)
- Worked together to create content and information for GP Practice’s new website.
- Looking at differences in access to GP-led Care.
- Supporting hospitals to get the clinical environment right.
- We contributed to the discussions in the Assembly for the Sussex integrated care system.
- Supporting NHS Sussex to improve maternity outcomes.
- Using information we received from patients in Sussex we submitted a joint response to a Parliamentary Inquiry into dentistry.
- We contributed additional insight to understand and respond to Long COVID locally.
Who we share our Annual Report with
Our Healthwatch Annual Report has been submitted to Healthwatch England, alongside reports from all local Healthwatch in England.
We also share our report with West Sussex County Council as the commissioners of the local Healthwatch service, and with a wide range of our statutory and voluntary sector partners across West Sussex.
If you find this interesting or you are interested in the work we do, please feel free to share or forward our annual report with your contacts or network.
