We assembled with Wandsworth residents and our community partners to discuss our main focus, amplifying the patient voice. Read on for a recap of our latest Healthwatch Wandsworth Assembly.
Our Partners:
This assembly, we spoke about our main focus, the patient voice and shared some of our upcoming and ongoing work within the community. We also heard from our voluntary and community sector colleagues at Ruils, Rethink, and the Wandsworth Primary Care Patient Participation Forum who told us the ways in which they are working to make the patient voice heard. See below for more info:
Howden Insurance Brokers – Tooting
We were graciously hosted by our neighbours at Howden Insurance Brokers – Tooting, who provided a wonderful space, welcomed us with a glass of bubbly (or soft drink!) and provided delicious food from Taabir Asian Cuisine. Howden Insurance regularly supports local community organisations and shares our mission of championing local voices and experiences to improve health and social care.
Contact:
Tel: 0208 037 9720
Ruils – Independent Living:
Ruils is a user-led charity supporting Disabled children and adults and people with long term health & mental health conditions to live independently, be part of their community and to live life to the full.
We heard about their newly launched disabled people’s forum to support people to take control of their own care.
You can sign up here for more info and to join the forum.
Contact:
Tel: 020 8831 6083
Email: info@ruils.co.uk
Web: https://ruils.co.uk/
https://youtu.be/GGbCAKre9qA
Rethink Advocacy:
Wandsworth and Richmond advocacy service providing comprehensive advocacy support to people facing challenges, discrimination, or complex decisions about the care they receive. Our advocates support people so they have a say in important and often difficult decisions about their treatment and care. This includes support with arrangements that could impact on their independence and quality of life.
Contact:
Telephone: 0300 7900 559
Email: advocacyreferralhub@rethink.org
Web: https://www.rethinkadvocacy.org.uk/
Wandsworth Primary Care Patient Participation Forum:
Primary care patient group that seeks to empower patient groups to collaborate with key players in primary care. They meet every two months and are looking for representatives from each Patient Participation Group (PPG) to tell them what they’re doing and what is happening in their practice.
Contact:
Email: info@wandsworthpatientforum.org.uk
Music by Assorted Beat:
Assorted Beat is a collective of musicians who have been playing together in various ways for 10+ years. The name ‘Assorted Beat’ pays homage to our heritage and love for a variety of styles and flavours of music. We love to vibe together, let our creatives juice flow and most of all have fun with our music.
Instagram: assorted_beat_music
Facebook: Assorted Beat Music
Updates from us:
Patient and Advice Liaison Service Survey:
We are interested in understanding what Wandsworth residents know about the NHS’ Patient and Advice Liaison Service (PALS).
We have heard so far that people have had issues accessing PALS. So, we launched a project to gather patient experiences with the aim of feeding this back to the NHS to build understanding of what patients don’t know about the service and how we can boost confidence in PALS.
Take our survey and let us know your thoughts on PALS
Refugee and Asylum-Seeker Women’s Health Project
Refugee and asylum-seeking women experience worse health outcomes. This is due to many factors, however we understand that when patients speak limited to no English this can impact their ability to access women’s health care service and receive appropriate treatment.
We are working with Happy Homes Community to speak to Urdu-speaking women to find out how language has impacted their ability to access women’s health services. We will be facilitating a workshop on Thursday, 29th January 2026 at 11am to 1:30pm. If you or someone you know would like to share their experience and learn more about how they can use their voice to improve services for women, please contact:
Email: rhiann@wandcareall.org.uk
Tel: 07396820233
Or for Urdu
Email: foziabajwah@yahoo.co.uk
Co-Production Charter:
The Wandsworth Borough Council have asked us to support the regeneration of a co-production group that lost momentum during the pandemic.
We have produced a draft charter, which people can still comment on and influence.
Give feedback on our Draft Co-Production Charter | Healthwatch Wandsworth
We also heard from you:
We asked attendees to share how much they knew about the organisations in attendance and we heard that, although most people had somewhat heard of them, they still came away from the assembly with more knowledge of the health and social care advocacy work happening in our borough to platform residents.
We are also delighted to hear generally positive feedback with most people saying the assembly gave them an opportunity to share their experience and ask questions. The food, drink and music were also well received.
Learning is also important, and we heard that some attendees would have liked to hear a bit more about our future actions and strategies. We will take this on board and use this as an opportunity to make our next assembly even better.
Look out for more information on our first assembly of 2026!