News and reports

Last year, almost 1000 people shared their experiences of health and social care services with us. Our annual report highlights all the ways we've used your feedback to improve care, plus our plans for the year ahead.

Healthwatch Bristol has been working with the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) to improve the discharge process.

Access to NHS dental care continues to be one of the main issues we hear about from the public. The Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care System (ICS) has published a draft oral health and dental strategy for the next three years.

This checklist is a tool for people with a learning disability and their carers or supporters to fill in before attending an annual health check. It aims to help you recognise when things aren’t right, take actions to keep healthy, and to speak up and seek help.

Following patient feedback, the NHS has committed to making it easier and quicker for you to get the help you need from your GP and the healthcare community around your surgery. Our newly updated booklet explains what changes you may see, and how you can help us monitor them.

Health and care services must make sure that people who have a disability, impairment or sensory loss get information that they can access and understand, and any communication support that they need. Unfortunately, we know this doesn't always happen.

Eligible people are being invited by the NHS to have a top-up Covid-19 vaccination this spring. In line with expert advice, the NHS is offering Covid-19 vaccinations to people who are at increased risk of serious illness from the virus – including those aged 75 and over (by 30 June 2024), residents of care homes for older adults, and those aged 6 months and over with a weakened immune system.

102 people in Knowle West, Hartcliffe and Weston-super-Mare spoke to us about their experiences of health and social care. They shared the barriers and failures that prevented them from accessing local services, and what improvements are needed.

Patients will be able to have scans and tests at a new Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) from April 2024 as part of a wider NHS initiative to increase access to diagnostic procedures.

If your GP refers you to a specialist, you usually have the right to choose which hospital you go to. You can choose a hospital in your area – or one further away if you wish.

Please share your experience with us by completing our survey. If you have one or more long-term physical health conditions and feel like this has affected your mental health in any way (big or small). We want to hear from you.

Our workplan sets out the areas of health and social care we will be looking at over the coming financial year. It also outlines the research we plan to carry out in order to help improve local services.