News and reports

Our Insight Report is now LIVE! See what the team have been doing during April - June this year!

The Midland Metropolitan University Hospital (MMUH) opened on 6 October 2024.
With such a huge change in patient service delivery locations, there are challenges for patients, visitors and staff wayfinding around the hospital. The usefulness and effectiveness of hospital signage is a key part of the experience people receive.
The term wayfinding describes the processes people go through to find their way round an environment. The wayfinding process is fundamentally problem-solving and is affected by many factors, people’s perception of the environment, the wayfinding information available, their ability to orientate themselves spatially, and the cognitive and decision-making processes they go through, all affect how successfully they find their way.”

Healthwatch Sandwell held a focus group to understand how their stakeholders perceive Healthwatch Sandwell and the delivery of the service. The discussion was based upon the five values that were developed by Healthwatch England and local Healthwatch aim to embody. Stakeholders were invited by email to take part in the online focus group and this report outlines the themes from the discussion that took place.

This report evaluates patience experiences across three separate visits at the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital to:
➢ The Main Emergency Department (ED)
➢ The Children's Emergency Department (CED)

In 2024–2025, Healthwatch Sandwell reached an incredible 24,117 people through outreach, face-to-face engagement, and digital platforms. We continued to listen to local people, amplifying their voices across health and social care. Our team has worked consistently to ensure that the experiences and concerns of Sandwell residents help shape and improve local services.

Take a look at what Healthwatch Sandwell have been doing during March !

Here are the meeting minutes from our Independent Advisory Board Meeting, which was held 4 December 2024

We will be holding our ISAB meeting on 9th April, to join, please contact us at info@healthwatchsandwell.co.uk for teams invite!

A child or young person (0-25) is said to have SEND if they have a learning difficulty or disability which requires special educational provision to be made for them in order to support them to progress. Local service provision is governed by Part 3 of the Children and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice 2015, although other legislation, such as the Equality Act 2010, is also relevant. The introduction of the Children and Families Act and SEND Code of Practice placed greater emphasis on the inclusion of children, young people, parents and carers in planning and decision-making, as well as on supporting aspirations and improving outcomes. This should be facilitated by strengthening joint planning and commissioning of services and the publication of a Local Offer, listing information about local SEND support.

Healthwatch England says “Eye care is the busiest outpatient speciality in the NHS in England, and with an ageing population, demand is set to grow further. According to NHS statistics, of the nearly 59,000 people currently waiting for specialist eye care as of December 2024, only two thirds (66.8%) have been waiting less than the 18-week target set by Government, compared to a target of 92%.”

One of HWS priorities for 2023/24 is to focus on engaging with under representative groups in Sandwell. Through our engagement work, we found that a big topic for discussion were the issues with accessing GP services. The use of digital applications
(apps) was raised as an area concern for conversation.

We have carried out a project that looks at the experiences of people accessing and using digital applications (apps) for GP services, and the barriers to using them. This report will focus primarily on the NHS app, also referenced is the Air mid app.

This January we have visited a number of places to listen to local people share their feedback on services.