Our involvement of people priority

For our Involvement of People priority, we have been looking at 2 areas:

1. Whether community healthcare services are accessible/available to people who are classified as being housebound. 

2. We are also working with Frimley Health to get patients views on the patient Information leaflets given at their appointment.

Involvement of People is a priority across primary care, social care and mental health. The ways in which people access services, and the availability of these services has evolved significantly over recent years, and Surrey residents have consistently shared the impact this has had on them.

The focus of our involvement of people care priority is to challenge the inequity of access which people tell us exists. We do this by seeking to understand the needs of our population and by providing information and advice accordingly. Alongside this we challenge and influence the healthcare system via our seats on a number of local boards and committees. Ultimately, we work to ensure that the population of Surrey know how and when to access primary care services and that services work better together to meet the needs of their local populations.

Recent work under this priority

Our recent work under this priority has included:

  • Our Hospital Feedback Project began in 2023 when we visited hospitals and across Surrey and gathered experiences about peoples’ knowledge and understanding of feedback mechanisms and barriers to giving feedback. We revisited the project a year after it completed and held each Trust to account; asking them to update on the actions they’d committed to in the short term and reviewing the long-term changes that were planned. We produced a video summary about our work and their responses. In March 2025, we were shortlisted for a Healthwatch Impact award for this work.
  • We undertook interviews and a survey to find out neurodivergent people’s experiences of outpatients in Surrey Hospitals. We have presented the findings at hospital patient experience meetings and there has been interest across our hospitals and health and social care system. From this we also developed a video highlighting the need for the Accessible Information Standard to be adhered to. Neurodivergent people's experiences of outpatients in Surrey hospitals - September 2024 | Healthwatch

We are currently focussing on:

Home based healthcare

  • Whether community healthcare services are accessible/available to people who are classified as being housebound, their needs are being met, how people experience registering with their GP and what improvements can be made to better meet these needs.
  • We produced an online survey on receiving home-based healthcare, which has been running in July and August. This was publicised online and the flyer/QR Code was sent out to community providers inviting their staff to take the flyers out to people to complete. Face to face interviews were also completed in people’s homes and at a Carers Support group.

Frimley Health – Patient Information Leaflets

  • Patient Information leaflets – we have worked with Frimley Health to get patients views on Patient Information Leaflets and whether the leaflets are leaflets are, accessible information about pre/post operative procedure and that the information that Frimley Health gives meets patient’s needs.
  • In July we visited Frimley Park Hospital 3 times and talked to outpatients who were waiting for appointments.
  • We produced an online survey on patient information leaflets which has been running in July and August. This was publicised on line and the flyer/QR Code was sent out to community providers and VCSE partners inviting people to complete. 

Reports and bulletins relating to our current work in this priority are in progress and will be available at the end of September on our reports section on our website.

Reports and bulletins relating to this priority can be found under the Involvement of people category of our reports section on our website.