Annual Report 2023/24

Healthwatch Tower Hamlets report on its key achievements for 2023/24.  It:

• Published 29 reports and gathered feedback from 4,432 residents, using community insight to influence local NHS and council decision-making, particularly on GP access and patient experience.
• Influenced improvements to GP services through its GP Access report and Enter and View visits, leading to changes including improved appointment access, recruitment of additional staff, callback systems, translated patient information and better complaints information. 
• Helped make services more inclusive for LGBT+ residents, with recommendations from the Healthy Neighbourhoods project being adopted by the Royal London Hospital Patient Experience Team. 
• Improved accessibility for disabled residents by feeding findings from the Healthy Neighbourhoods project into the redesign of local leisure services, contributing to the new Be Well programme with more inclusive activities and improved accessibility. 
• Influenced local and North East London health system planning through projects including The Big Conversation and work on co-production guidance, helping create a Good Care Framework and new measures for assessing health and care services.
• Helped improve maternity services by contributing evidence on the experiences of women from Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities, leading to changes including translated booking systems, additional translation support on labour wards and targeted work with Somali communities. 
• Ensured the experiences of people facing barriers to care informed service planning, including work on mental health support, cancer screening access, language barriers, autism, disabilities and care home healthcare.