News and reports

Our Annual Performance Report is part of our contractual requirement with Brighton and Hove City Council and demonstrates what we have achieved between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025.

In March 2025, Healthwatch in Sussex sought people’s experiences of vaccinations and received 566 responses to our poll.

These are the board papers for the Board of Directors meeting held on 14th April 2025. Minutes of the meeting will be published once these have been approved at the July 2025 Board meeting.

To feed into the development of the NHS University Hospitals Sussex five-year Dementia and Delirium strategy, we were approached by the Head of Nursing for Dementia and Learning Disabilities (NHS University Hospitals Sussex) to gather people’s views about their hospital experience. This study explores people who are affected by dementia and/or their carers’ experience of hospital attendance – either as an inpatient or an outpatient.

Between October 2024 and March 2025, Healthwatch Brighton and Hove staff and volunteers attended a range of different public events. We spoke with members of the community to hear their views about health and care services, and to raise awareness of our work.

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove conducted visits to the main reception of the Royal Sussex County Hospital and the Emergency Department reception of the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital.

This is part of a programme of work looking at patient communication at University Hospital Sussex NHS Trust.

In February 2025, Healthwatch in Sussex sought experiences of accessing Neurodevelopmental Services in the last 12 months.

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove conducted a visit to Mill View Hospital which is run by the Sussex Partnership Foundation NHS Trust (SPFT). Four of our trained volunteers conducted these visits.

Our visit to Mill View Hospital was part of PLACE or ‘Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment’. This report provides the volunteer's observations from their visits. PLACE is delivered as a national programme, and all data is collected and formally analysed by NHS Digital. They will publish detailed reports after the programme has ended.

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove ran a survey asking people to share their experiences of seeking advice and/or treatment for earwax issues. These are our findings.

In January 2025, Healthwatch in Sussex sought people's experiences of NHS Dentistry. Hear what local people think now, and how this compares to our data collected in 2023.

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove developed an interest in digital technology (text, email, going online for appointments) given the dramatic shift to digital GP access since the Covid-19 pandemic.

We know that certain people are less likely to use digital technology and could face disadvantage, for example by being unable to book GP appointments online.

In this review, we summarise 11 projects where we have examined digital technology as a means of accessing and holding appointments with health and care professionals.

Healthwatch shared a summary of our intelligence and insight which were incorporated into a paper for members of The Health & Wellbeing Board.