Putting Patients First: Our Partnership with Healthwatch
Listening to patients, learning from feedback
In March 2025, Healthwatch Hackney visited our community Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) clinics in City and Hackney. Their “Enter and View” visits are designed to observe services in action, talk to patients and staff, and identify what’s working well as well as areas for improvement.
The findings from the visit were overwhelmingly positive. Patients consistently described their experience as “easy,” “quick,” and “straightforward” when booking appointments. They praised our clinical staff as caring, professional, and respectful, with many noting that they felt listened to, reassured, and never rushed. One patient summed up their experience: “The doctor really took their time with me. I didn’t feel rushed at all. They listened, explained everything clearly and made me feel like my concerns were important.”
For us, this kind of feedback is both heartening and motivating. It tells us that the efforts of our clinicians, healthcare assistants, and administrative staff are making a real difference to the people we serve.
Supporting every patient
Healthwatch also highlighted the steps we take to support vulnerable patients – arranging interpreters for those who don’t speak English, booking transport for patients with mobility issues, and ensuring that information is available both digitally and on paper for those who are digitally excluded. These details matter. They are what ensure patients feel respected, included, and supported in their care journey.
Of course, we recognise that there are still improvements to make e.g. looking at how we can improve system integration with host GP practices. The value of working with Healthwatch is that their independent perspective helps us identify these barriers clearly and work with partners to resolve them.
Turning feedback into action
One of the areas we are most proud of is our commitment to using patient feedback to improve services. Every patient who visits our clinics is invited to complete a satisfaction survey, and we review this feedback monthly across all levels of the organisation.
Recent changes – such as offering surveys in multiple languages and giving patients the option to leave contact details for follow-up – show how we are making feedback more inclusive and actionable. Small but meaningful improvements, like clearer appointment letters and better signage, have already come directly from patient suggestions.
As one of our senior managers explained: “We really pay attention to what patients tell us. When people said the signs weren’t clear and that they needed parking info in the appointment letters, we took that on board and made those changes. It’s all about making things easier for them.”
Why this partnership matters
Our collaboration with Healthwatch is about more than a single report – it reflects a shared commitment to transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement. Healthwatch ensures that patients’ voices are not only heard but acted upon. For Communitas, that means staying focused on what matters most: delivering respectful, accessible, high-quality care.
By working together, we can continue to refine our services, respond to community needs, and make sure that patients feel truly at the heart of their healthcare journey.
Looking ahead
We are proud of the positive feedback highlighted in Healthwatch’s report, but we are equally motivated by the recommendations for improvement. They challenge us to keep raising the bar – whether that’s integrating our systems more closely with host practices, improving support for reception staff, or making clinics run more smoothly for patients and teams alike.
At Communitas, we see our partnership with Healthwatch as a cornerstone of how we deliver care: open, collaborative, and always shaped by the people we serve. Together, we are not only listening to patients – we are learning from them, and building a stronger, more responsive service for the future.
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