News and reports

D/deaf residents and Nepalese communities across Kent and Medway continue to face significant barriers when trying to access their GP. Recent feedback shared with Healthwatch Kent and Healthwatch Medway highlights how communication challenges—combined with the ongoing shift towards digital-first care—are leaving some people without the support they need.
This page shares what we heard, why it matters, and what needs to change.

Healthwatch Kent spoke to patients, carers and healthcare professionals about their experiences of live-in care after hospital discharge. We found that the programme helped patients return home safely and regain confidence, while giving carers reassurance and peace of mind. However, communication gaps and limited involvement of carers in planning were common challenges, alongside missed opportunities for patients to meet their care worker before discharge.

From September 2024, we started to receive more feedback on people’s experiences of mental health crisis support. This emerged from what people told us through Mental Health Voice, Healthwatch Kent and Healthwatch Medway without any targeted prompts for mental health crisis. To understand what people were telling us, we identified and analysed 489 related experiences from January 2024 to February 2025.

Healthwatch Kent and EK360 have released a report looking at the A&E hospital departments in East Kent. We spoke to 50 people at William Harvey Hospital and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital to understand what led them to attend A&E—and whether their visit could have been avoided.

Healthwatch Kent worked with Healthwatch Medway, Medway and Swale HaCP, Medway Council and Involving Medway and Swale to seek the views of young people and professionals that work with young people. In this spotlight report we have gathered data around the rising issue of self-harm.

We have published our report on Kent and Medway veteran's experience of health and social care since their discharge from the Armed Forces.

Healthwatch Kent is proud to share our annual report for the year 2024-2025.

We have published a report on the Home First service in East Kent, an early support service designed to help people back to living as independently as possible after a hospital stay.

We have published our evaluation report of the use of the ANIMA 'Digital Front Door' appointment booking system across the Tunbridge Wells Primary Care Network (PCN).

We have published a case study led report together with Healthwatch Medway on the experiences of those with substance misuse issues on accessing mental health services.

We have completed our report looking into accessibility and awareness of the Integrated Community Equipment Service (ICES) and have published our findings.

We have published our annual report for 2023-24. Follow the link below to download a copy.