Healthwatch Newham has highlighted significant barriers that residents face when trying to access health and care services, despite generally positive experiences once they are able to engage with the system. A report presented to the Newham Health and Wellbeing Board on Monday 29 June 2026 revealed that access remains the most significant challenge,
particularly concerning appointments, telephone systems, communication, and navigating the complex healthcare landscape.
Dianne Barham, Chief Executive of Healthwatch Newham, stated that inequalities often emerge before care is delivered.
She explained that Access is still the most negative experience we get.
She further elaborated that It's not about the services themselves. It's about getting to them, that it seems to be the issue, and then navigating in between them.
This difficulty is particularly pronounced concerning appointments, telephone systems, communication, and understanding the system.
Seldom-heard communities, particularly those for whom English is not a first language or who lack digital resources, face considerable hurdles. Healthwatch Newham has engaged with seldom-heard communities
including the Congolese deaf, Romanian and Eastern European communities, and is starting to engage more with Black African and Black Caribbean communities. The primary barriers identified for these communities, beyond language and digital access, are related to information, navigation, and understanding the system.
The findings suggest that improvements in GP access are more apparent for those who are digitally proficient, potentially widening the gap for residents without internet access. While the exact proportion of Newham residents who lack adequate digital resources is not explicitly stated, the Newham Residents Survey 2025 found that over one third (34%) of residents aged 65+ say they are not confident using technology.
Barham emphasised that trust matters, understanding matters, access matters, and relationships matter
to local people.
The Health and Wellbeing Board was asked to note these findings and support the continued development of approaches that combine lived experience with service activity and population intelligence to inform neighbourhood planning and service improvement. The Board approved these recommendations, encouraging partners to strengthen collaboration around engagement, insight sharing, and community intelligence to improve understanding of local inequalities and service experiences. Dianne Barham, Chief Executive of Healthwatch Newham, suggested that at neighbourhood level, to bring the service providers, commissioners and local residents together to sort of agree what those outcome measures might look like. And then I think we've got the capacity with partners to measure whether integrated care programmes are actually improving against those measures. So there's some real co-production, co-design, bringing communities actually into designing and, I guess, measuring neighbourhood success and integrated care.
While not directly addressing access issues, the meeting highlighted several initiatives aimed at improving health and care outcomes and reducing inequalities. The Better Care Fund (BCF) 2026-27 Narrative Return details investments in:
- Reablement: Increased investment has led to a 54% increase in referrals and a 21% improvement in the proportion of people completing reablement without needing a long-term care package. A case study of 'Resident A' demonstrates successful reablement within six weeks, leading to no ongoing support needs.
- Homeless Discharge: Partnership work has reduced hospital bed days by 1,000 days. Initiatives include the Leggatt House Homeless Intermediate Care provision, supporting 43 residents in 2025/26, and a Homeless Discharge Team that has reduced street discharge rates from 70-80% to approximately 15%.
- Extra Care Schemes: The Leacroft Lodge scheme, a 48-bed extra care facility, reduced demand for new care home placements by 10% in its first year of operation. Resident feedback indicates high satisfaction (92% in April 2026).
- Integrated Neighbourhood Health and Care Model: This approach aims to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities by bringing together partners from the NHS, London Borough of Newham, and the VCFSE sector. Early priorities include cardiovascular disease and diabetes prevention, and strengthening coordination for high-need population groups.
