Recent Projects

An independent report based on our findings from an Enter and View visit to the Leicester Royal Infirmary’s Children’s Emergency Department.

Opened in 2018, the Leicester Royal Infirmary’s Children’s Emergency Department (ED) operates 24 hours per day, every day of the week. It’s an emergency, walk in department which offers x-ray facilities. On the 20 August 2024 we worked alongside Healthwatch Leicester and Healthwatch Leicestershire to complete an Enter and View visit.

We were given a tour of the ED and spoke to patients who were in the waiting area at the time of our visit. In addition, patients who had used the ED in the last 2 years completed a survey. In total we heard from 46 patients.

Our report highlights what the patients feel works well within the department and what could be improved. 

Some of our recommendations include:

• Improve communication during busy periods and make information clearer in waiting areas.
• Monitor the area to the front of the building to ensure people do not smoke or vape near the entrance area, particularly focusing on the ramp and steps.
• Make more use of the fitted screens for health and department information.

To read the full report with a list of recommendations, download the document below.

Download the News release below.

If you need a copy of the report in another format, please contact us on 01572 720381 or email info@healthwatchrutland.co.uk

Our findings from our revisit to Kettering General Hospital’s Maternity Department have now been published into a short report for you to view!

In 2023, we carried out an Enter and View of Kettering General Hospital’s Maternity Department and made recommendations based on the information we gathered – you can read this here.

Earlier this year, our team revisited the hospital to see whether the previous report’s recommendations were listened to and briefly observed the current environment.

We concluded the report by saying that we would like to return to KGH to conduct a full Enter and View in the Spring of 2025. Once this has taken place we will publish the findings on our website.

We recently conducted a revisit of Northampton General Hospital’s Maternity Department and these findings are now published in a short report for you to view!

In 2023, our team carried out an Enter and View of Kettering General Hospital’s Maternity Department. From the people we spoke to and the information we observed recommendations were made to the hospital – you can read this here.

In October 2024, we decided to revisit the department, in order to see if our recommendations were acted on. Brief observations of the general environment of the wards were also made. We have formated this information into a short report which you can read below.

On the 20th of June 2024, Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire representatives visited Kettering General Hospital’s Ophthalmology Department to carry out an Enter and View. We are happy to share the final report below.

Our aim with the visit was to evaluate the services provided from the perspective of the service users within Kettering General Hospital’s Eye Unit, including Ophthalmology Outpatients and the Spencer ward. The information gained from the visit was used to make some recommendations and areas in which the service was providing quality care, were acknowledged.

Some of our Key Findings can be seen below.

Positives:

• Very friendly and helpful staff
• Clean and well-maintained facilities
• Accessible facilities and information including BSL being offered, materials available in bold print and other languages, wide corridors and foldable seats in the hallways.

Challenges:

• Blank notice board within waiting area 2 could be utilised
• Fixing items like the TV in the main Waiting Area and the water fountain in the waiting area 2

Read the full report detailing our findings from the visit, recommendations we made and feedback from staff and service users below.

Our report detailing our findings has been published take a read!

In the autumn of 2023, Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire was commissioned by Northamptonshire’s Integrated Care Board to carry out research exploring the experiences of young people and their parents and carers who were waiting for an assessment of Autism and ADHD or those that had been recently diagnosed. To achieve this a survey was designed by Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire and then adapted for parents and carers as well.

A total of 322 people responded to the survey (115 young people and 209 parents and carers) looking at the support that was needed and struggles that young people and their families faced.

Some of the key findings discovered were:

• 32% of parents and 31% of young people said they had no support from any organisation after diagnosis
• 44% of young people did not think that the services available to them had helped them in comparison to 26% feeling that they had helped
• The most selected things that young people said they struggle to deal with were education, social skills, mental health and maintaining positive relationships with friends or peers

We know that this is an issue for a lot of people nationally as well as locally and it was vital that young people and their carers had a way to feed back the experiences that they are having. We know that there is work that is ongoing across Northamptonshire and look forward to seeing the changes that can be made

Esther Stimpson, Young Healthwatch Lead

Click below for more information on our findings in both the full report and an easy read version.

The results from Young Healthwatch’s piece of work surrounding young people’s views on using vapes and nicotine products has now been published.

In the autumn of 2023 Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire was commissioned by Public Health West Northamptonshire to gather the views of young people in West Northamptonshire who use vapes or similar nicotine products. We carried this out by speaking to young people in a focus group or one to one setting.

Public Health West Northamptonshire wanted to understand the motivation for young people to use vapes and electronic cigarettes so that they can build a specific service for young people to support them in stopping vaping. Despite the fact that it is illegal for young people to buy nicotine vaping products, it is thought that 69% of vape users are currently aged 11 to 17 across the country.

The full report can be read below, as well as an easy read version.

Read the report:

Read the easy read report: