People in Somerset help choose our health and care priorities for 2026/27
- Healthwatch Somerset
- 2 hours ago
- 2 min read
We heard from 161 people across the county about the health and care issues that matter most to them.
Your feedback will help shape our work in 2026/27 and make sure local people’s experiences continue to be heard by decision makers.
The four topics we asked you to vote on were:
A. | Community health and wellbeing support Your feedback shows us gaps in community support, causing some people to return to hospital because post-discharge care isn’t reliable. We will gather your experiences of post discharge care and use them to influence the structure of Neighbourhood Health Hubs. |
B. | Has the NHS referral process improved? In 2025, you told us NHS referrals were often delayed or lost, and that communication while waiting was unclear. We will look at whether recent national changes have improved the process and use your feedback to help shape services. |
C. | Men’s health and wellbeing services Following the launch of the first Men’s Health Strategy in 2025, we want to hear from men in Somerset about their health and wellbeing needs. Their views on services will help improve care and reduce health inequalities and barriers. |
D. | Support for parent carers of adult children Our work with carers has highlighted difficulties that parent carers of adult children with learning disabilities and complex neurodiversity face. We aim to understand these challenges and use your insight to improve support services and care for families. |
The most popular topic in our public vote was community health and wellbeing support. This was the clear first choice for many people and the most popular topic overall. The second most popular topic was the NHS referral process, showing that people are still concerned about how easy it is to get the care they need.
We also asked people if there were other issues they wanted us to look at. Mental health services were mentioned most often, including support for children and young people. People also raised concerns about access to NHS dentists, GP appointments, and digital exclusion, especially when services are harder to use without going online.
This feedback gives us an important picture of what matters most to people in Somerset right now. We will use it to help guide our engagement and research work over the coming year, so that people’s voices remain at the heart of local health and care services.
Read and download a PDF copy of the full report from our reports page using the link below.
