Annual Report 2020-21

Highlights from 2020-21

• We heard from 4,630 people this year about their experiences of health and social care.
• We provided advice and information to 1,016 people this year.
• We directly engaged with and supported 1,143 people during the COVID-19 pandemic this year and approximately 460 people viewed our COVID-19 Information and Support webpage.
• 14 reports were published by Healthwatch Ealing this year, outlining the improvements that people would like to see being made to the borough's health and social care services. In total, we made 78 recommendations for improvement.
• 48 engagement events were attended last year, most of which were virtual. We also continued to grow our Twitter following and increase the number of subscribers to our
  online newsletter.
• 41 volunteers helped us to carry out our work. In total, our volunteers, interns and
  work placement students contributed 950 hours to Healthwatch Ealing, the
  equivalent to 119 working days.
• We employ 4 staff. The equivalent to 3 full time employees.
• We received £140,000 in funding.

Patient Experience Findings

• Prior to the pandemic, our Patient Experience Programme was carried out through daily visits to health and social care services, collecting feedback from over 400 people per month about their
  experiences of local services.
  • At the start of the pandemic, we had to quickly adapt our service delivery model to one of direct telephone calls to Ealing residents and gathering online reviews.

Enter and View Findings

• During the COVID-19 lockdown, our Enter & View programme was put on hold to
  comply with the local council's and government guidelines.
  • Nevertheless, in
    collaboration with Healthwatch Bromley, Healthwatch Hammersmith & Fulham
    and Healthwatch Waltham Forest, we were able to develop our Enter and View
    Virtual Visit Programme.

Our plans for next year

• Following up on the recommendations that we provided to services before and during
  the pandemic and supporting these service in their implementation.
• Using the learnings and findings from our COVID-19 Impact research as the foundation to create a co-produced framework for how we can address health inequalities in the borough.
• Further developing our own internal programmes through our newly established quality framework, thereby improving the influence and impact that we can have as an organisation working on behalf of residents.