Insight Bulletin: March 2026

Healthwatch Surrey gathered feedback from 130 people between February and March 2026 through community engagement, surveys, and helpdesk enquiries to understand current experiences of health and social care across the county. This work was carried out to identify the issues affecting local people most and to highlight trends, pressures, and system gaps requiring improvement. The research focused particularly on hospital care, GP access, maternity services, shared‑care prescription problems, and digital healthcare tools.

Key findings show that many people continue to praise hospital staff for compassionate, proactive care, often describing small acts of kindness that significantly improved their experience. However, complaints handling emerged as a major concern, with people reporting delays, unclear processes, lack of communication, and dissatisfaction with responses. Recurrent issues with prescriptions—especially where shared‑care arrangements break down—left some people without essential medication. Maternity feedback highlighted serious postnatal capacity pressures, missed care, and inconsistent support. Research updates also revealed barriers to equity in eye care and significant challenges using the NHS App, including registration problems, low awareness of features, and limited digital confidence.

Recommendations focused on clearer communication, improving complaints handling, addressing shared‑care failures, strengthening postnatal capacity, and simplifying digital tools. Outcomes of these recommendations were not yet reported.