Find out how Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire can help you by watching this video

Our aim is to improve health and social care services in Central Bedfordshire.

To do this we need your feedback about local GP surgeries, hospitals, dentists, pharmacies, opticians, social care, emergency care and community based health teams. With this, we are able to inform, liaise, influence and, if necessary, challenge decisions and plans.

For all of this, we need your help!

Please help us by sharing your experiences of all or any of these services by clicking on the button below.

Tell us when things are going well and when they’re not, so we can do something about it.

Board Meeting in Public – 10th March 2020

We are delighted to have Tom Davis from East of England Ambulance Service Trust (EAST) discussing EAST’s Five Year Plan.

This event is open to all residents in Central Bedfordshire. Have your say on Health and Social Care Services in Central Bedfordshire.

Enter and View Programme 2020

Part of the local Healthwatch programme is to carry out Enter & View visits. Local Healthwatch representatives carry out these visits to health and social care services to find out how they are being run and make recommendations where there are areas for improvement.

The Health and Social Care Act allows local Healthwatch authorised representatives to observe service delivery and talk to service users, their families and carers on premises such as hospitals, residential homes, GP practices, dental surgeries, optometrists and pharmacies.

Enter & View visits can happen if people tell us there is a problem with a service but equally, they can occur when services have a good reputation – so we can learn about and share examples of what they do well from the perspective of people who experience the service first hand.

The Enter and View programme for 2020 starts again with Care Home visits scheduled from 27th February.

If you would like HWCB to consider visiting a service you may have concerns about, or feel that improvements could be recommended, please contact the HWCB team on 0300 303 8554, or info@healthwatch-centralbedfordshire.org.uk.

About Young Healthwatch

Our Young Healthwatch volunteers have been busy working on a number of projects since they came together almost a year ago. They have also recently received appropriate ‘Enter & View’ training and are keen to put their learning into practice by visiting health and social care services such as hospital wards, surgeries and care homes. The young people will then be able to report their findings from their unique perspective.

If you would like a group of young Healthwatch volunteers to visit your service please contact Amy.Eymor@healthwatch-centralbedfordshire.org.uk.

Period Poverty report

Young Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire have been involved with the ‘Red Box Project’ over the last 10 months.

The project is a community-based, not-for-profit initiative which aims to support young people through their periods by providing Red Boxes filled with free period products to local schools.

The ‘Red Box Project’ was set up in 2017 after its founders had read about ‘Period Poverty’ in the news. It’s aim was to stop any girl having to skip school because of their period. There are currently over 2,200 Red Boxes across the UK.

Young Healthwatch had two main aims: To attain a greater depth of knowledge about period poverty and to support a national campaign that sanitary wear should be provided free of charge in schools by the Government.

To download the report, please click here.

Like to learn more?

There is a lot more information on the Young Healthwatch website, including the great achievement of one of our volunteers who has secured a fantastic apprenticeship with Cancer Research UK.

If you are under 25, why not consider becoming a member of Young Healthwatch Central Bedfordshire? Get in touch for more information.