Recent Projects

Our report on the Enter and View visits we conducted at St Andrew’s Healthcare has now been published!

Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire partnered with the East Midlands Provider Collaborative for Adult Secure Care, known as IMPACT, to carry out multiple Enter and View visits of St Andrew’s Healthcare.

St Andrew’s purpose is to inspire hope for those living with complex mental health needs, by working in partnership with the NHS, voluntary, academic and research organisations to deliver specialist inpatient and community mental healthcare.

The intention of the project was to visit a variety of mental health inpatient wards within St Andrew’s to gather an in-depth look at the different services, as well as gather the experiences of patients, families, carers and staff. 

Healthwatch staff and volunteers accompanied IMPACT on its regular service reviews, where they visited six wards. These included men’s and women’s low and medium secure, as well as speciality services for learning disabilities and autism (LDA) and Deaf services.

Some of the key findings discovered include:

• Staff are passionate and deeply committed to their work
• The provision of services and modifications on the wards for those with disabilities is well delivered
• Activities on and off the ward positively influence patients’ treatment and progress however, staff shortages limit the availability of activities
• Some staff felt unsafe working on the wards when staffing levels were not achieved. They also felt that patients do not feel safe when staffing levels are low

The report below details the findings discovered from the visits, staff, patient, family and carer feedback as well as Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire’s recommendations to St Andrew’s Healthcare.

In December 2023 Healthwatch England initiated a project about understanding people’s experiences of diagnostic services. Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire participated by visiting Corby’s Willowbrook Health Centre, evaluating accessibility and gathering patient feedback.

The key findings

Accessibility and transport:

• The centre is accessible by public transport, with a bus stop nearby.
• Issues with parking availability, especially for disabled spaces, which were sometimes occupied by mobile diagnostic vans.

Facilities and environment:

• The diagnostic services visited (phlebotomy and ultrasound) were quiet and pleasant, with clean and comfortable seating.
• Some patients had to stand due to limited seating in the waiting area shared by ultrasound, x-ray, and urgent care.

Staff and patient interaction:

• Staff were friendly and respectful of patient privacy and dignity.
• There was a lack of usage and signage for hearing loops, and no posters informing patients about accessible information standards.

Patient feedback:

• Most patients found the location convenient and the staff to be the best part of their experience.
• Issues highlighted included the need for improved parking and a larger waiting room.

Read the full report below for more in depth information on our observations of the centre, patient feedback and recommendations we made.

Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire’s latest report is published, containing the results of the barriers to the public engaging in health and social care research.

Integrated Care Northamptonshire wanted to better understand what the barriers to health and social care research are within Northamptonshire and asked Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire for collaboration on this topic.

To deliver this project, we engaged with the community through a survey and two focus groups which helped us gather key information.

The report below contains our key findings, recommendations that can be made to ICN and other community services, as well as the results of the survey and focus groups.

Read the report:

Read the easy read version: