News and reports

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove regularly evaluates its projects and reviews of health and care services to assess how effectively we have engaged with the general population of the city and its diverse communities. This Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) provides detail on the extent to which this was achieved in the last year. We present equalities data captured from 15 projects, reports detailing our engagement activities, as well as helpline data. These comprise a total of 2,174 responses.

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove conducted visits to various sites run by the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust (UHSx). Eight of our trained volunteers conducted these visits in October 2024.

Our visits to the Royal Sussex County Hospital, the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, the Eye Hospital and various wards across the estate were part of PLACE or ‘Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment’. This report provides a summary of our observations from the visits. PLACE is delivered as a national programme, and all data is collected and formally analysed by NHS Digital. They will publish detailed reports after the programme has ended.

In April 2025, Healthwatch in Sussex sought people’s experiences of satisfaction with their local NHS services. This included what services people felt most satisfied with, and with which services they felt most dissatisfied.

Healthwatch Brighton & Hove undertook an Enter and View visit to the Emergency Department at the Royal Sussex County Hospital - read about what we found and our recommendations.

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove is committed to contributing to the city’s accessible, clean and sustainable environment goals. Read about our plans.

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove is committed to delivering social value. Read about our plans to ensure that we have an overall positive impact on our people and communities. 

Our Annual Performance Report is part of our contractual requirement with Brighton and Hove City Council and demonstrates what we have achieved between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025.

In March 2025, Healthwatch in Sussex sought people’s experiences of vaccinations and received 566 responses to our poll.

These are the board papers for the Board of Directors meeting held on 14th April 2025. Minutes of the meeting will be published once these have been approved at the July 2025 Board meeting.

To feed into the development of the NHS University Hospitals Sussex five-year Dementia and Delirium strategy, we were approached by the Head of Nursing for Dementia and Learning Disabilities (NHS University Hospitals Sussex) to gather people’s views about their hospital experience. This study explores people who are affected by dementia and/or their carers’ experience of hospital attendance – either as an inpatient or an outpatient.

Between October 2024 and March 2025, Healthwatch Brighton and Hove staff and volunteers attended a range of different public events. We spoke with members of the community to hear their views about health and care services, and to raise awareness of our work.

Healthwatch Brighton and Hove conducted visits to the main reception of the Royal Sussex County Hospital and the Emergency Department reception of the Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital.

This is part of a programme of work looking at patient communication at University Hospital Sussex NHS Trust.