Hearing what matters to you in our annual survey 2026
Download (PDF 1.36 MB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Northumberland surveyed local people on what topics it should focus on in 2026/27. 220 people responded.
Overall, in the last 12 months, most respondents were happy with the NHS services they had received with 62% of respondents saying they had been ‘good’ or ‘excellent.
Almost half of respondents felt that the services had stayed the same (49%).
of adult social care services in the past 12 months. Of those that had experienced adult social care services, those that felt that the services were ‘fair’ or ‘poor’ (21% in total) outnumbered those that felt services were ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ (14% in total) by a ratio of 2:1.
From our day-to-day work Healthwatch knows that the following three service areas are of concern to Northumberland residents: GP services, hospital discharge services and audiology services. They intend to focus most of our work on these three areas over the coming year.
They asked the public on ideas for a fourth topic to focus on. Urgent dental care came out as the most popular option with almost a third of the responses (32%). Respondents chose urgent dental care as a priority due to a widespread crisis in NHS dental provision across Northumberland.