We conducted a mystery shopping exercise in November 2020, contacting all dental practices in Newham, to understand whether patients could secure an NHS emergency appointment and whether practices are registering new NHS patients.
The visits are carried out by trained Healthwatch volunteers. The volunteers will speak to service users, staff, relatives and carers, and will observe how the service is delivered, and the general environment in which it takes place.
We conducted a review of dental practices across Newham in 2017 to investigate the availability of routine NHS dentist appointments, following feedback that residents were finding difficult to secure an appointment.
This was an announced Enter and View (E&V) visit, part of a planned strategy to assess the quality of supported living homes in the London Borough of Newham.
Young people previously revealed experiencing barriers to access mental health services. In 2019, our team used focus groups and questionnaires to understand the experiences of young people using mental health support services.
Healthwatch England secured funding to ensure local Healthwatch can support public engagement on the NHS Long Term Plan and contribute to the development of a local plan in the East London Health and Care Partnership.