News and reports

Results from our Freedom of Information Request show care home residents and other social care users are not being given support to make a complaint about social care services.

New research finds just one in five councils offer a dedicated complaints support service for social care users.

Find out what we found when our network spoke to more than 11,000 people and visited over 550 GP surgeries, pharmacies and opticians across the country.

Investigation into Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust finds failings at almost every level.

New guidance to help hospitals ensure that there are the right number of midwifery staff to provide care for women and their babies.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has published the findings of an Inquiry into detainment of mental health patients today.

By analysing over 11,000 conversations the Healthwatch network has had with the public about this issue, we found five common areas where people wanted to see improvement.

We have written to the Department of Health outlining our concerns about the safety of people using health and care services that aren’t currently regulated.

Most people say they are satisfied with their GP but research from our network suggests that there are significant issues of concern for some groups of people, particularly for those with hearing, visual and mobility problems.

CQC has called for improvements to be made in services provided by St Andrews Healthcare. The CQC inspection report into the provider, released on 10 February, gave St Andrews an overall rating of "requires improvement".

The Department of Health has released a report which sets out the progress made in applying the lessons learned from the failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust.

We ask local Healthwatch every year to tell us what matters most to local people regarding health and social care. This year it was mental health that came out on top with 77 out of 152 local Healthwatch identifying it as a priority.