Listening Tour - Wealden District

This is a report from Healthwatch East Sussex. A listening tour took place in the local area and the report summarises this work.

The Listening Tour uses a variety of activities to hear people’s experiences of accessing and using health and care services. This is done through surveys, discussion groups, and listening events. Feedback received is used to make recommendations to health and care partners to support positive changes to local services. This report relates to what was heard in our Listening Tour in the Wealden District between May and August 2024.

There are no recommendations in this report.

There are follow up actions in this report.

1. Healthwatch will report feedback on barriers to accessing primary care to NHS Sussex, including the role of VCSE organizations like East Sussex Vision Support in addressing 
some of these barriers. 

2. Healthwatch will highlight the role of social prescribing in the development of local Integrated Community Teams, and the potential to help people find specific activities that are relevant to them. 

3. Healthwatch will highlight access to patient transport for people in rural areas with South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust. Healthwatch will highlight the importance of affordable transport options for the social inclusion of young people, and people on low incomes in Wealden. 

4. Healthwatch will raise the portability of the East Sussex Carers Card with NHS Sussex, and explore why other health providers outside of East Sussex cannot offer discounted parking for carers. 

5. Healthwatch will incorporate the learning from this listening activity into a wider report on the Listening Tour of East Sussex, which will be shared in 2025.