Our news
Click here to sign up for our regular e-newsletter and keep in touch with the latest news from your local Healthwatch.
New patient group gets policy change at hospital trust
09/12/2019
A new patient group - recruited with help from Healthwatch - is up and running, aiming to help shape policy and services at local hospitals. The...
Life in a care home - experiences wanted
13/11/2019
What is life like in a Cambridgeshire or Peterborough care home? Healthwatch wants to find out people's experiences of care and how easy it is for...
Report on the state of health and care in England
23/10/2019
A ‘perfect storm’ could be brewing for people using mental health, learning disability and autism services, warns the Care Quality Commission...
Lizzie's Story
17/01/2017
I am Lizzie and have been volunteering with Healthwatch Cambridgeshire as a Research Volunteer for a few years. I enjoy it as it is looking at health care services and patients’ experiences. After gaining a MSc, I worked in the NHS as a medical laboratory assistant in two hospitals and did some...
Hearing from young people
06/01/2017
In November, we visited The Voyager Academy in Peterborough where we heard from more than 130 young people who shared their understanding of mental well-being and how they would like to get mental health support. This is part of a project we are working on with Healthwatch Peterborough, to help our...
New Healthwatch report on Hinchingbrooke Emergency Department
22/12/2016
Staff are friendly but the Emergency Department (ED) can be very busy and patients aren’t always getting the privacy they need, says new Healthwatch report published today. In October, our volunteers made two visits to the ED at Hinchingbrooke Hospital to listen to local people’s experiences. The...
Healthwatch asks health commissioners to look at MSK physio services
08/12/2016
In the last few months, we have heard an increasing number of stories about problems getting an appointment for musculoskeletal (MSK) physiotherapy care. This includes inconsistencies in how to book an appointment and long waits for some patients. Some people told us they waited too long for an...
Visiting the Emergency Department at Addenbrooke's
08/12/2016
In the last week, our volunteers have visited the Emergency Department (ED) at Addenbrooke's Hospital to find out about people’s experiences of care. The ED is the front door to care for many and is often very busy. This took place on Sunday 4th and Tuesday 6th December, when our team of specially...
Healthwatch welcomes early publication of local Sustainability and Transformation Plan
21/11/2016
Our Healthwatch welcomes today’s early publication of the local Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) by Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). This publication is very timely, as we know that people have been worried about what the plans might mean for changes...
Healthwatch helps local voices be heard in Hinchingbrooke Hospital merger
08/11/2016
More than 50 people came to our Hinchingbrooke event last night, where we had a lively conversation about the potential future merger of Hinchingbrooke Hospital with Peterborough and Stamford Hospital Trust. Val Moore, our Chair, hosted this event to hear the different perspectives on the proposed...
Healthwatch listens to A&E experiences
13/10/2016
Last week, our volunteers visited the Emergency Department (ED) at Hinchingbrooke Hospital to find out about people’s experiences of care. The ED, also known as A&E, is the front door to care for many and is often very busy. We spoke to 64 people in the ED waiting room, the treatment area and...
Involving you in the future of Hinchingbrooke
30/09/2016
Our Chair Val Moore went to yesterday’s Hinchingbrooke Hospital Board meeting, where the Trust agreed to merge with Peterborough & Stamford Hospitals. The boards of both Trusts met separately this week to discuss a draft Full Business Case. This sets out the case for merging all clinical and...
Future of urgent care
29/09/2016
We know that local people have been worried about the future of the local Minor Injuries Units (MIUs) after news reports in the summer suggested these might close. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) are responsible for planning and paying for urgent and emergency...
Helping to build a dementia friendly Cambridgeshire
28/09/2016
Help create a dementia friendly Cambridgeshire, by signing up to become a Dementia Friend. Find out how dementia affects people and the little things you can do to help make life easier for people with dementia. We offer free Dementia Friends sessions to local people. Each session will take less...
Healthwatch hears about the NHS 111 and Out of Hours Urgent Care contract
16/09/2016
Our Board Meetings are open to the public and are an opportunity for you to hear about our work and ask questions. Our Board often invites senior health and care leaders to ask them about our concerns, or hear about new services. At our meeting this week , David Archer, from Herts Urgent Care (HUC...
Healthwatch calls for improvements in local wheelchair services
11/08/2016
The wheelchair service is often poorly co-ordinated, with people waiting too long for wheelchairs and repairs says Sitting Comfortably, our new report published today. This report tells the stories of more than 80 local people who use wheelchair services in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The...
We help Healthwatch England raise issue of delays for care assessments nationally
25/07/2016
Are people waiting too long to be assessed for social care support? We helped Healthwatch England design a toolkit to support other local Healthwatch to make sure people are not waiting too long for care assessments in their area. In 2013–14 we raised the issue of delays for people getting social...
Health commissioners Fit for the Future draft plan
20/07/2016
Our local health commissioners, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), are required to produce a five year year Sustainability and Transformation Plan. These are developed jointly by all local NHS organisations, working alongside local authority officers. Together they...
Making care better with you - what we did in 2015-16
30/06/2016
This annual report tells the stories of how we have helped local people shape services and the difference our Healthwatch has made. The year was difficult at times, with our local health and care system experiencing some major challenges that included Addenbrooke’s Hospital going into special...
Helping Addenbrooke's improve outpatients' care
22/06/2016
We are helping Addenbrooke's improve people’s experiences of outpatients, as this was an area of concern for the Care Quality Commission when they visited last year. We spoke to over 200 people in three clinics; our aim was to find out what care is like now and get some suggestions for improvements...
Healthwatch wants patient involvement at the heart of plans for future of Hinchingbrooke
24/05/2016
Our Chair Val Moore went to yesterday’s Hinchingbrooke Hospital Board meeting, to respond to the outline business plan for a merger with Peterborough & Stamford NHS Foundation Trust (PSHFT). We want to make sure local people have the chance to be involved in decisions about the hospital’s...
Thriving - improving young people's mental health
18/05/2016
Children and young people want mental health support that is meaningful and relevant to them. This is one of the main messages children and young people have for local mental health organisations, in a new report published by Healthwatch Cambridgeshire. We are publishing Thriving, our report into...
Local Healthwatch find cautious optimism for the future of adults and older people’s care
17/05/2016
Healthwatch Cambridgeshire met with 40 people last Wednesday, to share knowledge and ideas about the future of local older people’s health and adult community services (OPACS). Leaders from local NHS, social care and voluntary organsiations, patient representatives and colleagues from our other...
Listening to patients at Addenbrookes Hospital
22/04/2016
Last month our volunteers visited Addenbrookes Hospital to talk to people about their experiences of outpatient appointments. This is something the hospital asked us to help them with. We visited three outpatient clinics and talked to more than 200 people. We asked each person: How long they waited...
Local health commissioners publish report into ending of older people's contract
10/03/2016
Today Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) published its independent report into the ending of the older people's contract. The contract ended in December 2015 after only eight months. At the time we wrote to our health commissioners to ask some important questions...
Kate and Rita meet the children from Caldecote Primary School
08/03/2016
Kate Hales, Co-ordinator for Healthwatch Cambridgeshire and our Dementia Friends Champion, helped recruit 128 new Dementia Friends on a visit to Caldecote Primary School in February. This included 3 members of staff and 125 children. Kate visited the school with Dementia Friends Champion Lorraine...
Better care needed for local Gypsies, Romany and Travellers
03/03/2016
Yesterday more than 30 people came together to talk about making health and social care work better for local Gypsies and Travellers. It included people from the Gypsy, Romany and Traveller communities, as well as local health and social care decision makers. At this event we launched "Our Health...
Healthwatch challenges County Council to cut care package waiting times
02/02/2016
Earlier this month Cambridgeshire County Council told us they had hugely reduced the number of people waiting for a social care assessment. We were pleased with this news, as previously people had waited up to 47 weeks for an assessment. We first found out that long waiting times for care...
