News and reports

Take a look at our August Insight Report to see what patients are telling us about services in Sandwell.

Birmingham and Midland Eye Centre is one of the largest tertiary level facility of its kind in Europe which provides expertise in clinical care, research and education. It is based at City Hospital in Birmingham and is part of the Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust. It receives referrals from hospitals and GPs across the region.
It offers a comprehensive set of services including ophthalmology Accident and Emergency, diagnostics, day surgery and outpatients, as well as housing administrative and educational facilities – all services :
https://bmec.swbh.nhs.uk/services/

Take a look at this months Insight Report, which will give you a snap shot of what our team have been doing during July.

Please click the link below to see what was discussed during our Health Advisory Board meeting, held on 4th July 2023.

During July Healthwatch England launched new research which shows people are experiencing catastrophic health impacts as a result of NHS appointments, procedures and operations being delayed or cancelled.

The Daily Telegraph says “Did you know 4 in 10 NHS patients face multiple delays in treatment?”

Diabetes clinic at Sandwell General Hospital gives patients the chance to meet a range of different members of staff who have specialised and have years of experience looking after people with diabetes who can check that they are as healthy as possible and give them highly specialised advice on how to look after their diabetes. Most referrals come via the GP.

Healthwatch Sandwell are aware the challenges people facing regarding getting GP appointments, especially during the pandemic. We would like to capture the other side of GP surgeries, what are surgeries doing to improve the patient experience?

This will help:

• Inform patients about improvements the surgeries are making

• Build relationships with Practice Managers and Patient Participation Groups (PPG)

• Promote PPGs

Healthwatch Sandwell is your local health and social care champion. We make sure NHS leaders and decision makers hear your voice and use your feedback to improve care. We can also help you to find reliable and trustworthy information and advice.

Over the past year we have published 22 reports, engaged with 2,043 people and visited six towns of Sandwell delivering our Guided By You workshops.

Information for our Health Advisory Board Meeting to be held 4th July 2023.

Healthwatch Sandwell (HWS) have the power to visit health and social care services, where health and social care is publicly funded and delivered. This power to Enter and View services offers a way for HWS to meet some of their statutory functions and to collect evidence of what works well. HWS use this evidence to make recommendations to commissioners and providers of health and social care services and to inform changes both for individual services as well as system wide and to improve people’s experiences.

Healthwatch Sandwell will be visiting premises throughout 2023. Keep up to date on the latest Enter and View reports on our website or following us on socials media!

Hello May,

Healthwatch Sandwell latest ebulletin.