Annual Report 2021/22

Healthwatch North Yorkshire report on its key achievements for 2021/22.  It:

• Influenced improvements to NHS dentistry by highlighting widespread difficulties accessing care, joining procurement processes for new dental services, contributing to regional dental planning, and helping shape new services in areas including Scarborough and Robin Hood’s Bay. 
• Worked with people from minority ethnic communities who face language barriers in healthcare, producing recommendations that helped providers improve interpretation support, translated information and communication practices. 
• Gathered and amplified public experiences of mental health and wellbeing, with findings feeding into community mental health transformation work and discussions with local mental health providers about service improvement. 
• Produced influential reports on the impact of Covid-19, delays to treatment, GP access and care home experiences, helping commissioners, councils and NHS partners better understand local challenges and act on public feedback. 
• Helped shape local health planning in Scarborough through engagement on healthy living, wellbeing and service access, ensuring residents' experiences informed future community health initiatives.
• Supported improvements in care home services by capturing lessons from the pandemic, highlighting examples of good practice, and helping partners improve support for care homes and the social care workforce. 
• Reached over 3,300 people and grew its volunteer network significantly, using community engagement, surveys, focus groups and outreach to ensure local views influenced health and social care decisions across North Yorkshire. 
• Strengthened partnerships with NHS providers, commissioners and local authorities, ensuring public experiences contributed directly to decisions around primary care, digital inclusion, mental health, dentistry and wider service transformation.