Recent Projects

Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire partnered with West Northamptonshire Council to conduct research on the experiences of individuals with respiratory conditions and we are happy to announce that this report is now available.

The aim of this project was to address health inequalities and inequalities that surround respiratory care and outcomes. It also had the purpose of better understanding the experiences of those groups who are more vulnerable to health inequalities, respiratory conditions and other long-term conditions in the local communities.

The project was targeted to those within the N4 Local Area Partnership (LAP), which covers the local areas of Northampton as a result of WNC’S identification of this being an area which has respiratory diseases as a community priority for action. To facilitate this project, our organisation partnered with Northamptonshire Carers Breathing Space support group and Change Grow Live’s Substance to Solution Service. 

Read the full report below.

We are pleased to publish our 15 Steps Visit at Northampton General Hospital Report, which was performed and created by Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire.

In November 2023, Young Healthwatch Northamptonshire was invited to Northampton General Hospital to assess and provide feedback on the wards visited. They did this by using the 15 steps method and were able to provide a young person’s perspective when giving feedback on areas of improvement and excellence.

We now have published a report detailing our findings. The report was written by Young Healthwatch volunteers in their own words, allowing the young volunteers to express their opinions and then finalised by the Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire staff. The report is based on what they observed and the people they spoke to. The full report can be accessed below.

Patients at Oakham Medical Practice (OMP) shared their views and recent experiences of services at the Practice in Healthwatch Rutland’s (HWR) latest Enter and View report.

HWR wanted to explore how patients are experiencing the many changes that have been made at the Practice throughout the last year or so.

Working in collaboration with the OMP Patient Participation Group, 82 people were interviewed across 6 visits to the Practice in August and September 2023. In addition, 1055 people completed a survey, which was available both online and in hardcopy.

• The majority of people interviewed said the quality of medical care is good (82%) compared with 47% of survey respondents giving the same rating.
• Patients are more confident and happier to see health care professionals other than GPs and the practice nurses are valued highly.
• During the visits, almost equal numbers of patients said they found it easy to make an appointment as found it difficult. This shows a variance against survey responses where just under one third of patients said they find it easy to make appointments and just under two thirds said they find it difficult.
• When asked “What one thing about the Practice would you change?” the biggest proportion of survey respondents (42%) wanted more appointments to be available.

The report includes 10 recommendations and a response to the findings and recommendations from Practice Management.

We are pleased to publish our Northampton General Hospital ’15 Steps’ Maternity Report. This report details the findings from our visit to the Maternity Ward at Northampton General Hospital. In May 2023, Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire partnered with Northamptonshire Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership to conduct a ’15-Steps’ Enter and View visit to the Northampton General Hospital’s Maternity Unit. On the day of the visit the Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire volunteers went to the Maternity Day Unit, the Barratt Birth Centre, the Balmoral Ward, the Labour Ward, the Robert Watson ward, and Transitional Care. We appreciated the ability to be allowed into the Maternity Facilities to evaluate and assess the premises, and our volunteers enjoyed the opportunity to be able to speak with staff and patients to better understand their experiences. Please read our report to see our findings from the visit. The information gained from the visit was used to make some recommendations, and areas in which the service was providing quality care were acknowledged.

On the 2nd of May 2023, two volunteers from Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire (HWNW) visited Kettering General Hospital (KGH) Maternity Department to carry out a ’15 Steps for Maternity’ audit. This audit looks at the quality of services provided from the perspective of people who use maternity services.

Healthwatch North and West Northamptonshire aim with this Maternity visit was to evaluate the services being provided within Kettering General Hospital, which included visits to the Screening Unit, the Delivery Suite, Rowan Ward, and the Snowdrop Garden.

The information gained from the visit was used to make some recommendations, and areas in which the service was providing quality care were acknowledged.