1. What people have told Healthwatch about mental health

    Report -

    For the past three years, mental health has been the number one health and social care issue for the Healthwatch network. Take a look to see what people have told Healthwatch about their experiences.

  2. What people told us about Canada House, Medway

    Report -

    We hear from people all over Medway about community mental health services. Although some of it is positive, the majority are negative stories from people and their Carers. Take a look to see what people have told us about their experiences.

  3. Spotlight on Young Carers

    Report -

    We've recently spent time listening to the experiences of young carers in Medway.
    This report shares the feedback that they told us.

  4. Spotlight on community equipment

    Report -

    We proactively gathered feedback about peoples' experience of using the community equipment service in Medway.

  5. Annual Report January/March 2021

    Report -

    Welcome to our annual report for January 2020 to March 2021

  6. Why it’s important to review the care of people with dementia

    Report -

    Read Healthwatch England's latest research to find out if people with dementia are getting the support they need.

  7. Spotlight on Maternity Services in Medway

    Report -

    In May 2019, we spoke to 38 people in the antenatal unit about their
    experience.

  8. Children and young people give her their feedback

    Report -


    Children and young people from across Medway have been sharing their stories with us about their experiences of health and social care services.

  9. Driving improvements to community mental health

    Report -

    Recently we have revisited the Community Mental Health clinics to see what changes have been made since our first reports.

  10. Spotlight on the Deaf Community

    Report -


    This week is Deaf Awareness Week. To celebrate we are publishing the feedback we heard from the Deaf community in Medway.

  11. Healthwatch Medway Annual Report 2019/20

    Report -

    Our annual report is now published for you all to read, so if you want to know a bit more about what we do and what we have achieved, take a look.

  12. How helpful has your GP website been during Covid?

    Report -

    During Covid, we've heard from hundreds of people about how they have been coping. Many people have talked to us about the difficulties they've had to see their GP with many surgeries offering telephone or online appointments.

  13. How have Medway residents coped during Covid?

    Report -

    Ever since March, we have been gathering feedback from Medway residents about how they have been coping.

  14. Looking for those that don't know they need to be found

    Report -

    We know that more people than ever before have been looking after someone during the Covid-19 pandemic.

  15. Did you know that every Care Home has a GP assigned to care for the residents?

    Report -

    According the NHS guidance, every Care Home in England should now have a dedicated GP surgery assigned to it.

  16. How are you coping?

    Report -

    Every month, we share with you the stories that we're hearing from people in Medway about how they are coping

  17. Giving Care Homes a voice : what has it really been like for Care organisations in Medway during Covid?

    Report -

    Throughout the pandemic, we have been talking to Care Homes across Medway to understand how they are coping.

  18. What did you tell us in October?

    Report -

    Every month during the pandemic, we have been sharing with decision makers what life is really like for you right now.

  19. How did people cope during November?

    Report -

    Every month during the pandemic, we have been sharing with decision makers what life is really like for you right now.

    In November, you talked to us about a whole range of issues. Key themes are:

  20. A snapshot of Medway - What's going on in our area?

    Report -

    We want to make sure you hear about everything important that is happening around Medway – as its happening - that could affect your health and wellbeing.

  21. How Covid can change your life

    Report -

    Five people spoke to us in detail this week to tell us how Covid has changed their lives.

  22. Steering Group minutes

    Report -

    How do we make our decisions?

  23. The Healthwatch Guide to Public Consultations

    Report -

    This guide is intended to support commissioners and service providers to deliver genuine, meaningful public consultations.

  24. The Healthwatch Medway Guide to Pre-consultation & Engagement

    Report -

    During our work to scrutinise consultations; poor pre-consultation engagement was the main area vulnerable to legal challenge via judicial review.

  25. What's it like to be homeless in Medway?

    Report -

    We chatted to five women, and three men, about their experience of being homeless in Medway. They want you to hear their story.

  26. What difference have we made this year?

    Report -

    We're proud of what we have achieved this year! Our volunteers have worked hard to ensure your experiences are heard by the right people and changes can be made as a result.

  27. Learning lessons from Covid in our pharmacies

    Report -

    Last year, over 100 community pharmacists told us what life had been like for them during the first wave of the Covid pandemic. Now, we've gone back to them to see what lessons have been learned since our first report.

  28. What's happened since we published our report on homelessness in Medway

    Report -

    In April we published a report detailing the feedback we heard from five women and two men who had experience of living on the streets of Medway. They told us about the challenges they faced to get access to healthcare.

  29. How does Asthma impact your daily life?

    Report -

    One in 12 people have asthma. That means that thousands of people in Medway are dealing with the effects of asthma every day. We heard from some Medway residents about their story.

  30. Read our scrutiny of the public consultation on Ruby Ward

    Report -

    One of our statutory responsibilities is to act as a critical friend on public consultations. Our role is to ensure people have been involved and listened to as part of any public consultation.

  31. Covid has exacerbated the health inequalities that already existed for people trying to access a dentist in Medway

    Report -

    Nearly 100 people from Medway have talked to us about how easy (or not) it has been to get an appointment with an NHS dentist.

  32. What did you tell us in January?

    Report -

    Over 2,500 of you came to us in January to share your experience of using health and social care services or to seek information.

  33. What have we achieved this year?

    Report -

    Over 17,000 people came to us us last year to seek information or to share their story with us.

    Read about what we did with your stories and how we helped people.

  34. Listening to feedback about the Wellbeing Navigation service in Medway

    Report -

    In Medway, Wellbeing Navigators supports hundreds of people to get the support that they need. They are commissioned by Medway Council. We were asked to gather feedback from people about their feelings about the service.

  35. Listening to feedback about the Reablement service in Medway

    Report -

    Every year hundreds of Medway residents receive support from the reablement service which helps them to regain skills and confidence after they have been ill. They are commissioned by Medway Council who asked us to gather feedback from people.

  36. Listening to people's thoughts about a new Mental Health Assessment & Counselling service for Medway

    Report -

    Conversations are taking place about a possible new mental health and counselling service in Medway, The proposal would see a new service in place within Medway Hospital to support people who arrive with mental health issues.

  37. What have we achieved this year?

    Report -

    19,714 people came to us for clear advice and information about topics such as mental health and the cost-of-living crisis.

  38. We run a signposting and information service, but what difference does it make and how do we support people?

    Report -

    1167 people contacted our information and signposting service in the past year. 243 of these people across Kent and Medway told us how they had been impacted by our information and signposting service.

  39. What people have told us about pharmacy

    Report -

    This report summarises the feedback received from people via Healthwatch Kent, Healthwatch Medway and Kent and Medway Voice about their experiences of pharmacies from November 2022 to April 2023.

  40. What people have told us about general practice

    Report -

    This report presents the feedback received from people via Healthwatch Kent, Healthwatch Medway and Kent and Medway Voice about their experiences of general practice from November 2022 to April 2023.

  41. What people have told us about dentistry

    Report -

    This report summarises the feedback received from people via Healthwatch Kent, Healthwatch Medway and Kent and Medway Voice about their experiences of primary care dentistry from November 2022 to April 2023. This includes 34 separate pieces of feedback.

  42. Understanding Care Homes near you

    Report -

    Having concluded our visits to 15 Care Homes across Kent & Medway talking to residents, their families and staff about the Enhanced Health in Care Home programme we have now completed our stakeholder facing report and have now shared our findings with Aging Well.

  43. What people have told us about community pharmacies in Medway

    Report -

    On the last Friday of July 2023, we hit the streets of Chatham and chatted with 81 of our residents who shared their thoughts with us, in the high street and right outside the local pharmacies.

  44. How people feel about living in Medway

    Report -

    This year Healthwatch Medway is looking at heath inequalities in Medway.

  45. How people feel about living in Medway

    Report -

    This year Healthwatch Medway is looking at heath inequalities in Medway.

  46. Medway and Swale Health and Care Partnership Insight Gathering Network

    Report -

    21 Medway and Swale community organisations and 9 Medway and Swale PPGs were invited to take part in the first Medway and Swale Health and Care Partnership Insight Gathering Network survey.

  47. What have we heard about how people are being supported with their mental health?

    Report -

    As many of you are aware we work closely with Mental Health Voice (MHV) and the 4 Local Mental Health Networks (LMHNs) based around each Health and Care Partnership area.

  48. Kent and Medway Safeguarding Adults Board Annual Report

    Report -

    Read Kent and Medway Safeguarding Adults Board's 2022/23 annual report, acknowledging the large range of work done to safeguard vulnerable people who may be at risk across Kent and Medway.

  49. A Spotlight Report on the Deaf Community in Medway

    Report -

    In 2020, Healthwatch Medway reported on difficulties in accessing healthcare experienced by the D/deaf community. In 2022 Healthwatch Medway shared a report prepared by Healthwatch England that showed that the Accessible Information Standard, a legal requirement created by NHS England in 2016, was still being compromised in Medway for the d/Deaf community.

  50. Our policies on information governance

    Report -

    Find out more about how we collect, process and store data.