Our 2025-26 Annual Report is here
This year's report covers the work closest to people's lives: women's health, the care of older people moving from hospital to home, maternity, the right to receive information in a way you can understand, and the barriers some residents face simply trying to register with a GP. Behind every project are the voices of people the system too often doesn't hear.
What we found
There was good, compassionate care to celebrate. But people also told us about real and recurring barriers: women dismissed or sent away when they raised genuine health concerns; older people facing poor communication and uncertainty around discharge; and people in vulnerable circumstances turned away - in one case told by a GP surgery, "You should learn English, you are in an English country." These experiences reveal the distance that still exists between what services intend and what people actually meet on the ground.
The difference it made
Listening only matters if it leads somewhere. This year our work fed directly into the national maternity and neonatal investigation, helped shape the revised national Accessible Information Standard, changed how cervical screening is delivered across North East London, informed university research, and shaped discharge work at Whipps Cross Hospital. Local experiences became local and national change.
Why this matters now
The future of Healthwatch is uncertain. That makes independent, trusted, community-rooted insight more important than ever; not to document problems, but to help make services fairer, clearer and more responsive for everyone.
