Urgent Call to Protect Independent Patient Voice – Open Letter from Healthwatch Leaders

Image shows a large pink box with the number 131 in it. The text says: 131 Local Healthwatch sign open letter to government - an Urgent Call to Protect Independent Patient Voice. At the bottom of the image is an icon of a docuemnt being signed. At the top is the Healthwatch Surrey logo.

Urgent Call to Protect Independent Patient Voice – Open Letter from Healthwatch Leaders

18th July 2025

We have today sent a press release to local press regarding the Open letter signed by 131 local Healthwatch services across England, including Healthwatch Surrey.

We have also sent emails to local MPs askign them to challenge this plan.

Our message is:

This open letter raises serious concerns about government proposals to bring patient voice functions under the control of local authorities and NHS bodies – changes that would undermine the independence that makes patient feedback meaningful and effective.

For over a decade, Healthwatch has been a trusted, impartial voice for patients, carers, and communities. Our independence allows us to speak truth to power, challenge poor practice, and amplify the voices of those often unheard – particularly the most vulnerable and those with the most complex needs. The letter highlights how this independence is essential, drawing on lessons from the Mid Staffordshire NHS scandal and the Francis Inquiry, which exposed the dangers of failing to listen to patients.

We believe that dismantling this independence risks feedback being filtered, inconvenient truths softened, and accountability weakened – at a time when public trust in health and care services must be rebuilt.

What will be lost without Healthwatch Surrey?

  • Our role as an independent critical friend – We work constructively with local stakeholders, but always with the freedom to raise concerns without fear or favour.
  • Our trusted, impartial role – some people come to us because they lack trust, they fear repercussions sharing their feedback direct with those providing their care, they find provider feedback routes difficult to navigate, or because they have shared in the past and feel that they have not been heard.
  • Our role amplifying the voices of people who face barriers to accessing support, and those at risk of health inequalities – the new plan relies heavily on people feeding back to the services they use, but we speak to people experiencing health inequalities about the barriers to accessing those services too.
  • Our independence, enabling us to share findings which are 100% person focussed – Our research is based on what people with lived experience tell us, with no other taskmaster or agenda.
  • Our work acting as a bridge across sectors – people do not fit neatly into one box, they often experience and need services across multiple providers. We connect VCSE organisations, local authorities, health services, and communities to build a more integrated and inclusive system.

Examples of the above are all highlighted in our annual report video: https://www.healthwatchsurrey.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Annual-report-video-2024-2025.mp4.

Our full annual report is available on our website: Unlocking the power of people driven care: Healthwatch Surrey Annual report 2024 – 2025 – Healthwatch Surrey.

As one Surrey resident who we have supported recently told us: “We have been trying to get [an ECG] booked in for months and only made steps towards getting this booked in when Healthwatch Surrey got involved.”