Overgate Hospice got in touch with Healthwatch Calderdale to ask if we could support them to gather feedback about their services currently and the services they would like to provide in the future. Overgate Hospice felt that working in partnership would help them to reach more people and, as Healthwatch Calderdale is an independent organisation, people would feel comfortable giving us their views.

The waiting game

Since March 2020 we have had a lot of feedback from the public telling us about delays, difficulties and changes in NHS and social care services, due to the Covid-19 pandemic affecting how these services were run. Healthwatch Kirklees and Healthwatch Calderdale worked collaboratively during 2021 to collect the experiences of people living in Calderdale and Kirklees during the Covid-19 pandemic who had experienced delays to health and social care for non-Covid related conditions since March 2020.
NHS Report Delivery Plan For Tackling The Covid-19 Backlog

Here at Healthwatch Calderdale, we have recently completed our latest work into people’s experiences of accessing medication.

This project was prompted by our initial engagement into people’s experiences of Covid-19, with over 200 people telling us they had some challenges accessing medication.
We have further explored 3 areas:

• Changes to medication;
• Medication reviews;
• Support of others to obtain medication.