Between April and June 2025, the ten Local Healthwatch across Greater Manchester worked together as a network to ensure people’s voices shape health and care. In Quarter 1 we heard from 1,789 people through more than 130 engagement activities, and published four reports including our Greater Manchester Menopause Insight Report alongside local work on urgent and emergency care, pharmacy, and primary care. This collective insight demonstrates the strength of Healthwatch in GM: rooted in local communities but united in amplifying independent patient voice across the city region.
The impact of our local Healthwatch
Each Local Healthwatch has a unique role in its community. This quarter they:
- Reached people who are often excluded, including d/Deaf communities, carers, and families facing health inequalities.
- Completed Enter and View visits in GP practices, pharmacies, and hospitals to check accessibility and standards of care.
- Delivered targeted projects such as veterans’ prescribing in Bury, young carers in Manchester, and dementia support in Bolton.
- Responded quickly to issues raised by residents, from unsafe hospital discharge to dental deregistrations, ensuring that concerns were escalated and acted upon.
Why this matters
This quarter’s work shows the dual strength of Healthwatch in GM:
- Locally: each Healthwatch listens, acts, and escalates to ensure communities see tangible improvements.
- Across GM: we bring those voices together to influence the system and hold decision makers to account.
By working in partnership, we are making sure that lived experience is not just heard, but used to shape a more accessible, fair, and compassionate health and care system across Greater Manchester.