Quarterly Update: January to March 2026

Report - 14 April 2026

This update summarises what local people are telling us about health and care, where experience is breaking down, and what we are doing with partners in response.

Latest insight reports

We have published three new reports on local people’s experiences of health and care:

Key headlines

Experience of services

  • 81% positive overall experience
  • Quality and empathy rated 88% positive
  • Information, involvement and support rated 83% positive
  • Access remains weakest at 60% positive / 40% negative

High satisfaction with care, but significantly lower satisfaction with access.

Care itself is strong. Access to care remains the main pressure point.

Newham University Hospital

  • 27% positive / 73% negative
  • Significant issues with waiting times, communication and support
  • Clear gap between care quality and patient experience

There is a clear gap between the quality of care and how people experience getting into and moving through services.

GP services

  • 76% positive overall experience
  • Strong clinical care and staff attitude
  • Persistent issues with telephone access, booking and waiting times

The clinical experience is strong. The access experience is not.

System-wide insight

  • Staff and clinical care are consistently strong
  • Problems are concentrated in access, administration, communication and navigation

This is a system issue, not isolated service failure.

Healthwatch priorities

  • GP access – identifying what works and producing practical guidance
  • Hospital discharge and reablement – improving transitions and integrated care
  • Prevention and health literacy (including cardiovascular disease) – targeted work with communities
  • Underserved groups – strengthening insight from communities we hear less from

Highlights this quarter

  • Agreed priority focus areas with partners, including GP access, discharge and prevention
  • Began developing practical GP access improvement work with system partners
  • Produced and shared cardiovascular disease insight to inform prevention work
  • Increased targeted outreach with young people to fill gaps in who we are hearing from

These areas of work are directly focused on addressing the access, communication and navigation issues identified in our insight.

Why this matters

  • Make experience visible alongside performance data
  • Use insight to shape decisions, not just describe problems
  • Track whether change improves people’s experience

Experience is not breaking down in treatment.

It is breaking down before and around care.

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