News and reports

The System Influencers Programme brought together young people (16–25) and health professionals in City & Hackney to co-produce better health and care services. Over two years, five 12-week cycles engaged 71 young influencers and 26 mentors, delivering 19 youth-led projects on mental health, sexual health, equity, and community connection. These collaborations built trust, improved service accessibility, and inspired education pathways for participants. Despite challenges such as and time constraints, the programme proved that genuine partnership creates meaningful change. Showcases celebrated achievements and strengthened networks, making services more inclusive and youth-centred, a true example of co-production in action.

Healthwatch Hackney visited Allerton Road Medical Centre in June and September 2025 to assess patient experience and service quality. Findings show mixed feedback on appointment booking and reception interactions, with long waits linked to patient preference for familiar GPs. Accessibility challenges include limited translation support and English-only check-in systems. While staff culture is described as “family-like,” clearer governance is needed. Recommendations include improving communication, strengthening interpreter services, enhancing feedback visibility, and supporting continuity of care. The practice has committed to implementing these changes to ensure patient-centred improvements and better accessibility for vulnerable groups.

Between 28 April and 16 May 2025, Healthwatch Hackney carried out a mystery shopping exercise, at the request of Adult Social Care (ASC) at Hackney Council, to better understand residents’ experiences of seeking support. The aim was to explore how people navigate three key routes into the service: the Adult Social Care Front Door (Corporate Customer Services), Access and Duty, and Safeguarding.

The findings provide valuable insight that will support ASC’s current Three-Year Plan and wider service transformation work. The timing also reflects preparation for an announced visit by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). This work demonstrates a shared commitment to improving access, responsiveness and transparency in local social care.

This report summarises what we learned and sets out recommendations to strengthen the experience for residents.

Healthwatch Hackney conducted an Enter and View visit to Stamford Hill Group Practice on 29 March 2023 to assess accessibility, service quality, and patient experience. The practice serves over 17,300 patients, offers same-day GP appointments, and provides additional services such as physiotherapy, mental health support, and social prescribing. Observations highlighted good accessibility features but noted issues like tied emergency cords and limited wheelchair space. Patient feedback revealed long phone waits, difficulty booking appointments, and mixed experiences with reception staff. Recommendations include improving communication, offering advance bookings, enhancing cultural awareness training, and better signposting of services. The practice responded positively to most suggestions.

Increased pressure on GP services and difficulties accessing appointments mean that pharmacies are increasingly promoted as an access point for minor ailments and other services. These services include vaccinations and a range of common health concerns, including access to sexual health services.

Hackney residents age 16 + can access a wide range of free sexual health services locally Homerton sexual health services. Healthwatch Hackney explored how accessible and young people friendly local pharmacy services. We did this the help of some young volunteers and support from Public Health Hackney.

All the pharmacies we visited had signed up to provide free EHC according to Public Health Hackney. Worryingly only 7 out of the 16 pharmacies that we visited said could provide free Emergency Hormonal Contraception to our mystery shoppers.

Together with Hackney Chinese Community Centre, we developed a questionnaire to look at the experience of the Chinese and Vietnamese communities in Hackney accessing Primary care services to include GP, dentistry, optician, and pharmacy as well as services at the Secondary Care level with a focus on:
Access to services – language issues, digital exclusion, cultural awareness, attitude
Delivery of services – language issues, digital exclusion, cultural awareness, attitude
Support from service providers- language issues, digital exclusion, cultural awareness, attitude
The aim of this project is to ensure that health and care services are accessible for these specific communities as well as for others who have English as their second language. The purpose of this review is to investigate the impact of language barriers on healthcare and to suggest solutions to address the challenges.

It was apparent from the feedback Healthwatch Hackney receives residents, that many were complaining about how difficult is was to get through to their GP practice. For example, many said they were kept waiting for a long time for their call to get answered, and that this was impacting on their ability to access primary health care.

As a result, we decided to systematically review phone messages and the time taken to answer calls. This was with the aim of improving the patient experience when telephoning GP practices.

Our review was designed to evaluate the general and out-of-hours messages for all 38 GP practices in the borough. We listened to the messages and assess their content, tone and length as well as identify examples of best practice.

The review revealed a wide variation in the information provided in the recorded messages, and the way the messages were delivered, as well as the length of the messages. There was also a variation in how long it took to answer calls.

31/38 practices acknowledged receipt of the individual practice reports we produced and welcomed our findings and recommendations.

An example of their feedback includes:

“Thanks for the very useful feedback. I can confirm we are in the process of procuring a new cloud base phone system which is able to support the very good practices highlighted by your report. We hope to be up and running by the end of the third quarter. In the meantime, we have reviewed the procedure in reception in order to offer better support to those less favoured by our existing system.” (London Fields Medical Centre)

Healthwatch Hackney annual report 2023 – 2023

This report follows on from the December online Community Voice LGBTQIA+ Public Forum held for City & Hackney residents, providing detailed insights from members of the Hackney LGBTQIA+ community. The forum highlighted the unique healthcare challenges faced by the LGBTQIA+ community, emphasising the need for a more inclusive and understanding healthcare system.

The focus group, held online on January 18th, conducted by the Community Voice team, aimed to delve deeper into people’s individual experiences, further informing the development of London Borough of Hackney’s Equality Plan by capturing first-hand accounts of healthcare interactions, with a further focus on mental health, within the Hackney LGBTQIA+ community.

This Community Voice public forum focused on the healthcare needs of the marginalised and often misunderstood LGBTQIA+ community in City & Hackney. The forum and report set out to provide a platform for LGBTQIA+ voices to inform local healthcare policy and provide actionable recommendations for systemic changes.

The London Borough of Hackney Equality Plan and Sexual and Reproductive Health strategy in City & Hackney (presented by guest speakers at the forum) aim to address systemic inequalities through community-informed approaches.

Critical community feedback has pinpointed service gaps and the need for adaptation to meet LGBTQIA+ needs effectively. The council’s willingness to embrace this feedback and focus on mental health challenges within the LGBTQIA+ community is a positive step towards inclusive healthcare provision.

The Community Voice team have advocated for continued community engagement to shape these initiatives.

Healthwatch Hackney visited The Wick Surgery in February 2025 to evaluate patient experience, focusing on appointment booking, patient–staff interactions, the surgery’s approach to supporting vulnerable patients, and how it engages with patient feedback, compliments and complaints. This report presents the findings and recommendations for improvement.

In October 2024, Healthwatch Hackney visited Well Street Surgery to evaluate patient experience, focusing on ease of booking appointments, the relationship between staff and patients, and support for vulnerable patients. We also explored how the practice responds to and engages with patients’ compliments, feedback and complaints. Our findings draw not only on insights gathered during the visit but also on 15 months of patient feedback, providing a comprehensive evidence base. This report presents our findings and recommendations for improvement.