News and reports

In this report we research the experience of refugees and asylum seekers. During the autumn of 2016 we engaged with 105 people of all ages, visiting organisations including Croydon Refugee Day Centre, Linguahouse CIC, British Red Cross and Tamil Family Association. We also talked to frontline staff at Crisis and the British Refugee Council.

Comments from GP Experience Feedback Workshop conducted at the Annual Meeting 5 October 2016.

Croydon has 57 GP practices, with 403,045 registered patients according to NHS England. Healthwatch Croydon, the local champion for better health and social care, heard the views of over of 1,856 patients across Croydon from 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2016 with every practice represented. This report is reflective of their views, experiences and expectations of a service that nearly every resident uses.

Residents are seeing Croydon’s GP services as less personal. Issues include difficulties in booking appointments by telephone, clinical judgements made by receptionists, and weeks of waiting for routine appointments with a preferred doctor. Many residents do not get to see a GP of choice, or a GP at all, with many not knowing who their GP is.

This report looks at Croydon’s mental health services. It calls on health and social care providers to make the changes needed to deliver better care. This includes improving accessibility to services, users and their carers more involved in decision-making, more support and less emphasis on medication.

Carers of people aged 65 and over in Croydon need far better support, according to a report by Healthwatch Croydon. This includes better communication between health providers and carers, more home support, better care planning, and better promotion of rights of carers.

There are over 50,000 people in Croydon over 65. Croydon has over 33,000 carers, with a significant number looking after over-65s. Around 35% of those registered as carers with Croydon Carers Support Centre look after over-65s.

Healthwatch Croydon, the local champion for better health and social care, heard the views of over 45 carers in Croydon in June 2016 gaining over 130 items of feedback.

The survey took place at Boots Coulsdon, Boots Lower Addiscombe, Boots New Addington, Boots Old Coulsdon, Boots Parchmore Medical Centre, Boots Purley, Boots Whitgift Shopping Centre and Queenhill Medical Practice between 24 April and 20 May 2016.

Our response to Croydon Health Services NHS Trust Quality Accounts 2015/16.

A joint response to the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) Quality Accounts 2015/16 from Healthwatch Croydon, Southwark, Lambeth and Bromley & Lewisham.

Healthwatch Croydon is compiling a report on the experience of local children and young people with Autism, and their families and carers. Key to this is the ability to access services, and level of support.

The report and supporting documents may be found below.

Supporting documents may be found below.

On 2 February 2016, Healthwatch Croydon published Experiences of discharge from Croydon University Hospital by patients aged 65 years and over. The report, commissioned by Healthwatch Croydon and undertaken by Age UK Croydon presented some good news with four in five patients not delayed at all and of those that were, most only experiencing a short delay of around an hour. However, most patients were more concerned about a lack of knowledge about the whole process, lack of time to discuss issues with doctors, and lack of communications between pharmacy, GP and social care services.

To launch the report, we planned a public meeting on 9 February at Age UK Croydon’s Scratchley Hall to gain further insight on these issues.

In this report, we present some recommendations based on the experience of 40 people that attended which included former discharge patients, carers, residents, service providers, which further support the research report.

We note that members of the Croydon Health Services NHS Trust and Croydon Clinical Commissioning Group also attended the event and thank them for their contribution. The trust in particular made some announcements and comments which we had included.

This report examines the experiences of discharge of patients aged 65 and over at Croydon University Hospital, based on a survey of patients undertaken between May and November 2015.

This was commissioned by Healthwatch Croydon and undertaken by Age UK Croydon.

This survey of mental health service users has found that they were admitted to a mental hospital ward due to lack of coordinated support services.

As part of its work, Healthwatch Croydon has scrutinised the local experience of Urgent Care and Emergency Services, engaging with residents in the community and at services, and researching local and national statistics. In this report, Healthwatch Croydon presents conclusions, along with findings of an Urgent Care and Emergency Services Public Meeting we hosted on 23rd November. The report looks at people’s collective experience, and also gives voice to their aspirations for future services. The Public Meeting, hosted by Healthwatch Croydon and attended by around 40 delegates, was an opportunity to record residents’ experiences specially on urgent care, and to get their views on the shape of future services.

Volunteer and local resident Tariq Salim was one of two Healthwatch representatives on the NHS committee that oversaw the re-procurement of local Urgent Care services. Now the process is finalised, with contractors appointed, Tariq gives his views of the process below.