June 2026 Newsletter

Chat from our Chair

Welcome to our June newsletter!

I hope you all are enjoying summer so far.  We are delighted to announce that our now very well established Health in the City Day is scheduled for a return on 27^th June. In partnership with the Neaman Practice come and find out about local services but also found out more about us.

We will be having our board meeting in Public on 19^th June, so save the date and come hear more on how Hackney CVS is working with the City of London Corporation to increase engagement with our community about what matters to us   and raise awareness about the work of VCS organisations.

Last month was very busy at Healthwatch City of London, we started the month with our Enter and View visit to St Leonards where we were able to find out more about how the locomotor service works and explore some of the issues you have raised, we’ll be publishing our report in the Summer, and as part of Dementia Awareness week we held a patient panel with the  Alzheimer’s Society. 

On 13^th May, the King’s Speech set out a number of proposed new bills and reforms, including the NHS Modernisation Bill (Health Bill). This bill outlines changes that could bring both opportunities and risks for patient care, accountability and NHS performance. The first debate took place in the House of Commons on 1 June, whatever the outcome for Healthwatch, we remain committed to listening to your voices and engaging with local communities across the City to make sure the proposed changes bring about a positive impact on those who live study and work in the City.

Whatever changes take place our Healthwatch City of London Business Plan for 2026/27 is out for consultation please do read it and let us know what you think.  We are also launching our annual survey so let us know how we’ve done and how we could do better. 

Last month, I did get a chance to attend the Volunteer event in the City where members of the Board met volunteers from different Health and Social Care organisations. It was great to meet so many people volunteering and doing so much for our community not just in health and social care but in so many areas that impact on our lives for the better. Volunteering is such an important part of what we do, so if you are interested do look at our website. 

I look forward to seeing you at one of our events soon, remember you are all welcome and if you can’t come you can always see what happened by checking on our website. 

Gail

Gail Beer, Chair

Have your say on the Healthwatch City of London Business Plan 2026/27

We have used our experience and insights from working with you and others to develop objectives that are locally based and designed to make a difference to those of us who live and work here.  You can read the full plan here and give us your views using the link below. 

Our top local priorities for the year are as follows:

1. Deliver 10 patient panels to inform service users about Health and Social care topics that are important to them and impact on day to day lives. Responding to the requests of local people.  
2. Continued engagement with Portsoken residents building upon the relationships built this year with the Bengali community and to increase engagement with the Latin American Community. Supporting the work to address health inequalities
3. Work with City Advice to provide support for City Workers. Understand the issues facing the hidden worker community, working with the provider to help signpost to City Workers who can help.   Give insights to the CoL on the impacts of funding changes.
4. Scrutiny of Adult Social Care. Undertake a mystery shop to better understand residents’ experiences of contacting Adult Social Care for support. Scrutinise the CQC report in relation to safeguarding. Support the development of user faced responses and initiatives
5. Projects - 

 a) Understand emergency pathways. The process used to assess, and direct patients with urgent health needs to the appropriate care setting. Especially looking at pathways for patients with pre-existing conditions such as cancer or heart problems.

B) Waiting list management – research how waiting lists are cleansed by health providers, where decisions are made, how patients are informed and appeal process and the impact on local users 

C) Social prescribing in the City - undertake a project to understand the use of social prescribing in the City, who provides it, how many people use it, how is it being used to support people who are on more than 10 different drugs a day. 

D) Patient communication – building on our previous project on digital apps, to carry out a project which aims to understand more in depth about the effects of the shift from analogue to digital in healthcare, the remaining scope for the use of traditional means of communication and patient satisfaction with the different forms of communication. 

6. Maintain, train and utilise a dedicated team of volunteers. To attend focus groups to give the City’s perspective, research and write reports for projects, help with HWCoL events and carry out enter and view visits.  

To give us your views please use this form 
Business Plan Consultation Survey 2026/27

The consultation will remain open until Friday 19th June 2026

 Board meeting in Public with Hackney CVS 

We are holding our next Board meeting in public on Friday 19^th June at 10am – 11.30am online

We will be outlining our objectives for the coming 

We'll also be joined by Pepsi Monderoy-James, the new Director- Communities, Health and Partnerships from Hackney CVS. Hackney CVS are advertising for two new City specific roles aimed at increasing engagement with residents and collaboration between voluntary organisations across the City. Pepsi will be giving us an overview of Hackney CVS and its work in the City.

 Register here

Board Meeting in Public with Hackney CVS | Healthwatch Cityoflondon

A review of Enter and View Visit in St. Leonard Physiotherapy Department

In early May we conducted an Enter and View visit to the locomotor service at St Leonards Hospital where we observed the patient experience, hospital infrastructure, environment, safety and accessibility.

Ours thanks to the Locomotor team, Hilda Walsh, Elizabeth Slee, Anna Ferguson, and to Samantha Trayman from the Patient Experience team, for their hospitality and time to enable our visit to take place.

During the visit we interviewed the managers, staff members and patients. We are working on the report of the visit which will also include feedback from our online survey.  

Key points to highlight for now are: 

• The locomotor service takes 20,000 referrals a year. There are 55 people in the team and last year the pain service treated 1592 patients, and 2300 patients were treated by extended scope physiotherapists.
• The hospital provides flexibility for people who are working and looking after school-aged-children at the time of booking and during appointments. Opening hours are 08.30 – 17.30 Monday to Friday, with physio clinics offered at three different sites in the local area for convenience. Almost all patients prefer face to face consultation.
• The wait time from referral to appointment is generally six weeks with a physiotherapist. Exceptions apply depending on the problem.
• The physiotherapy department have good accessibility, plenty of signage from the main reception where people are directed to the clinics by the receptionist
• Patients for who English is not their first or preferred language are provided with the advocates who belong to their communities and can interpret on behalf of patients. The hospital provides flexibility of face-to-face translators as well.

We also talked to the admin team about the problems patients have had with rebooking and scheduling appointments. We will be making recommendations following the visit which will be published in our report .

A review of Alzheimer’s Society Patient Panel

As part of Dementia Awareness week we had planned an event with the Alzheimer’s Society.  Sadly, a last-minute change of plan prevented them from joining us.  But all was not lost fortunately  our colleague from IMAGO were able to share with those present the work they are doing to support unpaid City Carers. There was also a very useful discussion around the table with attendees sharing their experiences and imparting advice and tips for support. 

Here are some of the following services provided by IMAGO for supporting City Carers: 

• Once you contact the service, they will work with you to understand your caring journey and build a personal support plan. They can help you prepare for a carers assessment with the Adult Social Care team.
• They provide information, advice and guidance to help you understand your rights as a carer and help you to manage the stress, anxiety and pressures of being a carer.
• They also help you to access advice on finances, debt, grants and benefits. They even encourage you to develop your interests, take up volunteering, training, education and employment, or participate in workshops and activity days to develop new skills.
• Helps you with managing connections, contacts, and emergencies and raise awareness on carer’s challenges, needs and wider support.

For more information on the Alzheimer’s Society please visit their website Alzheimer's Society and for more information on Imago visit their website, or join the Carers week events (details below)

Single Patient Record 

There has been a lot in the news this week about the ongoing debate on the Single Patient Record. The NHS plans to create a single digital record that brings together information from GPs, hospitals, community services and, eventually, social care. The aim is that healthcare professionals can access relevant patient information wherever treatment is provided.

The debate is essentially a balance between better patient care and privacy, trust, and data governance concerns.

Supporters argue that the current system is fragmented, with records often spread across multiple organisations. Benefits of a single record include, clinicians having access to a patient's full medical history, reduced duplication of tests and assessments, less need for patients to repeatedly explain their medical history and better coordination between GPs, hospitals, community services and social care. 

The government also argue that the system could help prevent thousands of hospital admissions and A&E visits each year while saving clinical time. 

Critics are not necessarily against a single record but raise several concerns around privacy and data collection, trust between patient and doctor with patients worried their information may be passed on, and the use of large private technology companies.

We will monitor this debate as it continues and feedback any concerns we have to the integrated care board.   In the meantime what do you think? Let us know your thoughts info@healthwatchcityoflondon.org.uk

Referrals to specialists NHS on Line 

This is a topic that is also in the news and on social media at the moment.  NHS on line which is due in 2027 seeks to change how you can access specialist care with a more direct patient initiated approach for some services. Little information is available at the moment, but we will keep our ear on the ground and let you know when more is available.  For more information take a look at NHS England » NHS Online

Prostate Cancer Testing 

The government has also announced this week that they accept the recommendations from the UK's National Screening Committee who have said the harms of screening outweighed the benefits in all other groups and only men who have a dangerous genetic variant and a family history of cancer should be screened with a prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test. It also announced an expansion of research and treatment for prostate cancer

Analogue to digital 

Last year, you’ll remember that we published a report on the use of Digital Apps in Healthcare. One of the three main priorities for the Government is to shift the NHS and healthcare from analogue to digital. This year we are building on our previous report with a project which aims to understand more in depth about the effects of this shift, the remaining scope for the use of traditional means of communication and patient satisfaction with the different forms of communication. 

Let us know if you’d like to be involved in a focus group or to share your experiences of digital healthcare info@healthwatchcityoflondon.org.uk

Golden Lane Leisure Centre New Announcement

We know many people are concerned about the future of the Golden Lane Leisure Centre.   The City of London Corporation have held two events at which they presented their proposals. There is one session remaining which is online. 

The event will provide an opportunity to:

• View the emerging design proposals and refurbishment options
• Learn more about the proposed improvements and future vision for the centre
• Speak directly with members of the project team
• Ask questions and share your feedback before decisions are made on the preferred option

Information will be presented and team members will be available to answer questions.

Questions you would like answered at the event can be shared in advance by emailing info@goldenlaneprojects.co.uk

The online webinar will also take place on 9 June from 6–7pm. Register for the webinar(external link). 

RenuHEART Grant Awarded to QMUL and Barts   Research into New Treatments for Heart Failure

A new international clinical trial, led by Queen Mary University of London and Barts Health NHS Trust, has been funded to help find new treatments for people living with heart failure. As part of the application, Healthwatch City of London was able to provide a letter of support to help secure funding.

Heart failure affects 64 million people worldwide and is a serious long-term condition that is particular prevalent in our local community. People living with the advanced stages of heart failure often experience severe symptoms such as breathlessness, fatigue, poor quality of life and a loss of independence, alongside frequent hospital admissions. Even with the advances in modern medicine, many people remain unwell and continue to suffer these symptoms.

Research performed locally at St Bartholomew’s Hospital has suggested that using a patient’s own bone marrow cells, combined with a growth factor called G-CSF which boosts cell production, may help repair the heart and improve symptoms. These cells are collected from the patient’s own bone marrow and are then carefully separated in a laboratory. Later the same day, they are delivered directly to the weakened heart muscle. Early clinical trials, which have been conducted over the past decade, alongside a charity-funded Compassionate Cell Therapy Unit at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, have shown promising results for these patients, including better heart function, improved exercise capacity, and enhanced quality of life.

The final stage of clinical trials  - a large Phase III study, called RenuHEART, will confirm whether this approach works and offers value for money for healthcare systems. It will compare standard heart failure care with and without this cell therapy. The study will recruit 698 adults with advanced heart failure and marks an important collaboration with hospitals in the UK and Switzerland. The outcome of this study will help determine whether this treatment should be made available for patients in the NHS.   

The RenuHEART trial is due to begin in the summer of 2027. This study has been funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Heart Cells Foundation. For more information, or to get in touch, please contact:

Professor Anthony Mathur (Chief Investigator) and Ms Maria Vourvou (Lead Research Nurse & Regenerative Medicine Programme Manager): bhnt.stemcells@nhs.net

City volunteer fair

Volunteer Centre Hackney is hosting their first City volunteer fair on Wednesday 17 June, from 11am-1pm at Artizan Street Library.

They will be joined by various organisations that have volunteering roles in the City, and the aim is to promote these to City residents and workers.