National Report highlights role of Healthwatch in championing patient voice

The Kings Fund has published its report on the ‘The future of patient voice’, including the role that Healthwatch has played nationally and locally to gather the views of people using the health and care system in England.

Key learning outlined in the report includes:

• Independence in patient voice enhances its credibility with communities and enables objective scrutiny
• Unsolicited feedback has enabled Healthwatch to identify emerging issues that matter to patients and service users which are not captured elsewhere
• Moving forwards, the health and care system’s capacity to hear, understand and act on people’s experiences should be strengthened
• Public sector workforce reductions raise concerns about their ability to engage communities meaningfully at scale
• Any future models linked to patient voice need to reflect the importance of partners listening together and acting on what is learnt   

‘Acting on what you hear is essential, and this relies on leadership and organisational cultures that genuinely prioritise the experiences and perspectives of those who use services.’ (p31)

The full version of the report can be read here.