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Advice and Information -
Living in a care home can increase your risk of oral health problems. That's why knowing what questions to ask care staff about your oral health or loved ones can prevent problems from developing. -
Advice and Information -
We explain why it’s important to have a plan in place, should you or a loved one become critically ill. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Wyndham House in Minehead, which is a period property with modern extensions. It has 50 bedrooms and is registered to provide residential care. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Winsor in Minehead, which is a period building providing nursing care for up to 40 residents. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to West Abbey Care Home, Yeovil, which is a large modern home accommodating 90 residents. It provides both residential and nursing care. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to The Firs Nursing Home, situated on the outskirts of Taunton. It can accommodate up to 40 residents and there were 38 residents living here at the time of visit. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to The Manor Care Home provides residential and nursing care for 68 residents of differing adult age groups. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Sydenham House is a modern 51 bed residential home in Bridgwater. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Frome Care Village. Up to 60 residents can be accommodated in the facility which is split over two buildings. Parsonage is a period building which is designated for dementia care and Woodlands is a modern building which provides nursing care. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Fletcher house, a large modern 60 bed residential home in Wells. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Carrington House, a purpose built residential home for up to 44 residents in Wincanton. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Croft House Residential Home, a spacious modern home for 67 residents in Williton. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Rossetti House, a 70 bed care home in a purpose built building which opened in 2013. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Grovelands, a large modern purpose built building with 61 single rooms in Yeovil. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Somerset Court, which provides residential and support services for people who have autism. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Oak Lodge in Chard, which is a purpose-built care home and provides accommodation for frail older people. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Oak Meadows in Taunton, a care home that was adapted some years ago from an original military building on the site. The home specialises in the care of older people living with dementia. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Centenary House, a residential care home in Shepton Mallet, which is able to care for up to 13 residents. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to The Rosary Nursing Home, a large care home in Bridgwater, which offers nursing and dementia care for residents as well as respite care. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to The Old Police House, a care home in the village of Nunney near Frome, which provides accommodation for people with a learning disability. -
Report -
We wanted to find out about the challenges faced by care home staff during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to understand how they have managed during this time. We held a focused feedback interview with a local care home; this is what they told us. -
Report -
We gathered real-time feedback on local health and social care services during the pandemic from the views of Somerset residents, to provide information that services can learn from once the outbreak has passed. -
Report -
We wanted to explore the quality of the transfer of care process in Somerset and use the experiences of people who have been discharged from hospital with ongoing care needs to guide improvements in the process. -
News -
As Healthwatch marks its tenth anniversary this week, Healthwatch Somerset joins the 152 local Healthwatch across England to appeal for more people to feedback on NHS care. -
News -
Our new report evaluates people’s experiences of being discharged from hospital to be cared for at home or in a residential or community care setting. -
News -
Today we have published four reports about care homes in Somerset – three reporting on the quality of care in Somerset care homes prior to COVID-19 from a residents perspective, and a fourth looking at the challenges faced by care home staff during the pandemic. -
News -
Help shape the future of services for people living with a life-limiting illness. -
News -
Dorothy House Hospice Care wants to hear from those with a life-limiting illness, their carers and families about what Day Services they think would improve their wellbeing. -
News -
Our roadshow, which travelled almost 260 miles around Somerset to find out the views of local people on health and care services, has finished a seven-day tour with more than 400 views collected. -
News -
We are encouraging local people to give their views and experiences of local health and care services following a recently published report on Mendip House in the county. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to Newholme, a residential care home in the village of Ruishton near Taunton, which provides accommodation for people with a learning disability. -
Advice and Information -
Here we look at six things you should expect when making a complaint about social care services. -
Advice and Information -
To choose the right care home and support for your needs, or the needs of a loved one, it's important you have the right information to make your decision. Here are six things you should consider when choosing a care home. -
Advice and Information -
People are often in need of out-of-hours medical assistance. Using NHS guidelines, we have provided some advice and information on where you can go for help when your GP is closed. -
News -
With spiralling costs of living, Healthwatch England is warning people are making changes to how they use health and social care services, which can have an adverse impact on their health and wellbeing. -
Advice and Information -
When you need specialist NHS support, like hospital tests or treatment, you often need a referral from your GP first. Find out what this includes and what to expect. -
Advice and Information -
The NHS wants to make it easier and safer for patients to get the right treatment when they need it, without waiting a long time to be seen in A&E. Find out what this means for you and your loved ones. -
Report -
Our report following a visit to West Mendip Hospital, Glastonbury. The wards provide 36 beds, which host a mixture of patients: on Pathway 2, Pathway 3 or end of life patients. -
Report -
Our Enter and View Team engaged with members of public at Musgrove Park Hospital. We spoke to people and recorded their comments about health and social care services, and we gave out dozens of leaflets, and ‘How Connected Are You?’ Surveys. -
Report -
We consulted with members of the Somerset Polio Support Group to document the care they receive from the NHS in relation to their condition, at both primary and hospital level, in order to raise the understanding of PPS with NHS health commissioners. -
Report -
In September 2016 we returned to visit this group to find out how their report on Post Polio Syndrome (PPS) was progressing and to hear the key issues identified so far. -
Report -
This report details our engagement with Taunton Post Polio Support Group, the issues around the understanding among professionals about Post Polio Syndrome and the ongoing joint work to highlight these with commissioners, GPs and health professionals. -
Report -
Early Supported Discharge is a service that aims to help patients who have suffered a stroke to be discharged from hospital sooner and to carry out rehabilitation at home rather than in hospital. -
Report -
We created a survey that could be accessed online and completed at engagement events. The survey ran from 11 June to 31 August 2018. It asked for the views of local people who had used the service within the last three years. -
Report -
We have been talking to local people about their experiences and views of the Health Visiting Service in Somerset. This report tells you what people said when we spoke to them about the service. -
Report -
Healthwatch in Somerset, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay joined forces to promote a regional survey to ensure that people using the NHS 111 service had their say on the way it is delivered to them. -
Report -
We gathered the views of those currently using the District Nursing Service. We wanted to know what the current strengths and weaknesses were in the delivery of the service to patients in Somerset. -
Report -
Somerset’s NHS leaders asked us to help them understand how people are being affected by waiting for surgery to inform their ongoing work to improve support for patients. -
Report -
People who use NHS 111 in Devon and Somerset have reported ongoing concerns about the quality of the service, with the most common complaints being about long waiting times and difficulty getting through on the phone. -
Report -
The aim of this project was to gather the views of people living in West Somerset about same day urgent care. Somerset NHS Clinical Commissioning Group asked us to carry out this work as part of a review into how urgent care is provided in Somerset.
