News and reports

Can't find an NHS dentist? Read our tips on what to do if you’re facing problems finding an NHS dentist taking new patients or with NHS dentistry costs.

Does signing up with your dentist work the same way as registering with your GP? If you think the answer is yes, you're not alone.

Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin have been asked by Telford and Wrekin Council to find out what people who smoke tobacco think about smoking and stop smoking support services in the area.

Last year Channel 4 aired its programme ‘Undercover A&E: NHS in Crisis which followed a critical report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin would like to hear your views on what you think our work priorities should be for this coming year. We'd also like your feedback on how you think we are doing.

Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin Enter and View report - Woodcote Hall Revisit

The visit was an announced follow up visit to look at the recommendations that were made on our initial visit on 28 May 2024.

Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin Enter and View report - Revisit St George's Park
The visit was an announced follow up visit to look at the recommendations that were made on our initial visit on 22 November 2023

Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin plan and undertake research and evaluations in a number of different ways, from reports about what it is like to use a service to more detailed surveys looking at provision within the local area. Some of our work is done as part of our statutory activities but we are also available for commissioned activities.

Channel 4 aired a documentary programme called Dispatches on 24 June at 9pm titled ‘Undercover A&E: NHS in Crisis’.

The programme said at the time in its promotion of the episode:

“Over two months, a Dispatches reporter has filmed secretly while working in a major NHS A&E department. The undercover footage exposes the suffering and dangers patients face on a daily basis.”

Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin have heard from different care homes of times when discharges to them from hospital have been unsafe in their opinions. Likewise, we have heard from people who have mixed experiences of discharge. This is becoming more prevalent. We aim to work with care homes to explore this is in more detail with a survey and focus groups for care homes representative to jointly identify areas of stress within the system that leads to unsafe discharges and the impact of these. We will also promote this to the public to seek individual experiences of unsafe discharge and seek any similarities between the two to combine into one report with recommendations for improvement.

Healthwatch Telford and Wrekin is delivered by Engaging Communities Solutions CIC (ECS) and ECS recently undertook a project across its seven local Healthwatch to gather feedback from people about their knowledge and experience of Pharmacy First and other community pharmacy services.

Engaging Communities Solutions CIC undertook a project across the seven local Healthwatch it delivers to explore public knowledge and experience of the Pharmacy First service that was introduced in January 2024.
757 people took part in the survey, and it was found that 39% of those people had no knowledge of Pharmacy First at all.