The COVID-19 pandemic has put hospital discharge under the spotlight again, as the usual processes hospitals follow have changed to free up beds. 

We will be collecting people’s experiences of the new hospital discharge process that changed in March. So please tell us your experience of leaving hospital during the COVID 19 pandemic.

The survey will be live from the 21 July - 16 August 2020. This feedback will be used to help the NHS plan how people leave hospital now and in future busy periods.

Complete the survey here

The Healthwatch Brent Annual Report 2019-2020 is now available.  You can view it here. Find out about our community partners, how we reached people and gathered views from Brent residents.

Movement restictions brought into place. Read the latest information here

We have put together a leaflet called 'How to get help during lockdown' which contains lots of helpful information about the services that are available to you.

Managing one’s own health can help alleviate the huge strain on primary and emergency health services. Brent Clinical Commissioning Group launched the Health Help Now App in January 2018  - this digital tool provides support to self care for local people across North West London. Find out what local people think of the app, read our findings here.

The national uptake of cancer screenings for people with learning disabilities is poor. We wanted to explore the situation in Brent, so we held focus groups and spoke to 28 service users in brent about cancer. Read our findings here.  

We conducted a survey in all 5 GP access hubs in Brent to explore the main issues that local residents were experiencing. Read our findings here.

Oral health has been found to deteriorate in hospitalised patients. We conducted a review into hospitalised patients' mouth care across wards in London North West University Trust. read our findings here. 

Nationally suicide numbers have been declining since the 1980s, however in the last decade these numbers have been increasing. We spoke to national agencies and organisations, conducted desktop research and interviewed 26 faith and community groups in Brent. Read our findings here.

Personal care for hospitalised patients, as outlined by the NICE Guidelines is supporting patients with basic needs relating to continence, personal hygiene and comfort. We received feedback from inpatients across London North West University Trust that there were some concerns about personal care such as delayed access to toilet facilities and long waits when calling for assistance. Read our findings here.  

The NHS Long Term Plan outlines how additional NHS funding will be spent to ensure, that over the next 10 years, the health service is fit for the future. Some of the ambitious changes are centred on prevention, staffing and tackling inequality with the largest funding increases directed at GPs, mental health and community care. Read more here