News and reports

Between January and July 2025, Healthwatch Halton spoke with 101 people at Whiston Hospital to hear about their experiences of care.

Patients across Cheshire and Merseyside are being asked to plan ahead for the August bank holiday weekend (Saturday 23 August – Monday 25 August) by ordering any necessary repeat prescriptions, to avoid running out of essential medication.

Women across England can now self-refer online to get their first midwife appointments quicker and easier.

By completing a simple online form on NHS.uk, pregnant women can now refer themselves directly to their local maternity services without seeing a GP first.

Healthwatch Halton urge you to sign a petition to review the decision to abolish independent local Healthwatch.

People across Cheshire and Merseyside can now benefit from thousands of extra urgent dental appointments, thanks to new government funding.

The Women and Equalities Committee is examining how well the education and health systems support girls and young women with reproductive health conditions such as endometriosis and adenomyosis. A previous report found that these symptoms are often normalised or dismissed, resulting in delayed diagnoses and inadequate treatment.

The RSV vaccine can help stop you getting seriously ill from infections caused by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

The NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside is now offering the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) at selected local pharmacies in Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens, and Wirral, making it easier than ever for eligible people to protect themselves against serious respiratory illness.

Healthwatch published new research showing that there are significant gaps between the choices patients want when booking a GP appointment and the ones they are offered. But what choices should you get at your GP practice?

Around 5,700 people with early breast cancer are set to benefit from expanded access to a treatment combination designed to help prevent their cancer from returning, following the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommendation, published today.

This summer, Joe Wicks has released a new animated physical activity series, Activate, which aims to get children moving and having fun.

NHS England has published the long-awaited updates to the Accessible Information Standard. Read the Healthwatch response.

Between October 2024 and March 2025, Healthwatch Halton asked people across the borough to share their experiences of accessing GP services.