Enter & View is carried out under Section 221 of the Health & Social Care Act 2012. It imposes duties on certain health and social care providers to allow authorised representatives of local Healthwatch organisations to enter premises and carry out observations for the purposes of Healthwatch activity.
Healthwatch can enter certain health and social care premises to view the care being provided. This includes premises such as hospitals, care homes and doctors surgeries etc.
Enter and Views can be announced or unannounced.
During the visit Authorised Representatives observe and speak to service users about their experiences of the visited home or ward in order to collect evidence of the quality and standard of the services being provided. We also speak to staff and relatives.
The next step is to write a report which gives an authoritative, evidenced based feedback to organisations responsible for delivering and commissioning services. Those responsible for the service are expected by law to respond back in 21 working days. The reports are then made public.
This was an unannounced visit. We spoke with residents from Barking and Dagenham who use this service.
This visit is part of a programme of visits and looked at areas of service that include:
Healthwatch carries out Enter & View Visits to monitor services based on feedback received from the public. This year, one area of service that Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham is focusing on for patients’ experiences is local GPs.
This visit is part of a programme of visits and looked at areas of service that included:
This visit was undertaken as a direct result of feedback from the public.
This visit was undertaken as a direct result of feedback received from the local community.
Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham received consistent feedback from local people about access to GPs in the area. Key points raised included access to
urgent GP Appointments, only speaking to the GP about one issue at a time and staff conduct.
One of the practices highlighted was Heathway Medical Centre. Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham undertook the visit to gain a clearer picture of the issues that patients
share with us.
Healthwatch representatives felt that this was a positive visit based on feedback provided by patients. The triage service seems to work well for the practice as well as reducing the waiting times that patients have to wait for appointments.
Compared with other GP Practices that Healthwatch has visited, the waiting times this practice are not as long. As representatives spoke with a tiny proportion of the registered patients, that consideration should be taken with some caution, given that there are recent negative comments about the service online.
Healthwatch carries out Enter & View Visits to monitor services based on feedback received from the public. This year, one area of service that Healthwatch Barking and Dagenham is focusing on for patients’ experiences is local GPs.
This visit is part of a programme of visits and looks at areas of service that include:
