Healthwatch Milton Keynes is your local health and social care champion. We listen to what you tell us about your experience, what needs to be improved and what you want for the future.

We are independent, so people trust us and tell us what they think. We hear from people about NHS and social care services, so we’re uniquely placed to understand what is happening. This means NHS leaders and other decision-makers take notice of what we say. They know we’ll collaborate with them to find solutions, they can talk to us openly, and we encourage them to involve the public in making services the best they can be.

Our impact – reaching out to our community

We strive to make sure we hear from as wide a range of our diverse community as possible. We want to tell the people who make decisions and change things about the experiences everyone has with health and care services. 

We understand that factors such as culture, location, wealth, education, environment and discrimination can lead to worse health outcomes, and we support the strong consensus that this must change. We stand ready to help by doing more to amplify the voices of communities that go unheard and reduce the barriers they face. 

Better care for D/deaf patients

A woman with brown sitting by a window in front of a laptop, using sign language hand gestures. She is wearing a balck and white polka dot top, and a green plant sits on her desk

We have made sure that D/deaf patients using GP and hospital services in our city are given a BSL interpreter if they ask for one.

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Patient transport for those who need it

We have worked with our local Ambulance Trust to make sure that patients who have no other alternative transport, can still use an ambulance to get to their non-urgent hospital appointments.

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Women's health

We run a successful monthly Let's Talk women's health programme of events, to provide support and information on a range of women's health issues including menopause, mental health and money. 

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Safer medication records for at-home patients

We're working with local partner organisations to reduce the risk of medication errors for patients receiving care at home. 

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More accessible social housing

We helped disadvantaged residents in Milton Keynes to access social housing. As a result of our recommendations, the Council's policy was improved and made more accessible for our diverse communities. 

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Jake's story: Falling through the gaps

People often come to us when they are experiencing difficulties in accessing complex care pathways and need some help to navigate them. We heard from the mum of a young man with autism. Jake’s* autism means he has extreme hypersensitivity to pain and was struggling to get vaccinated against COVID.

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Making physio services accessible

A man on a physio table, with a physio wearing a grey jumper holding his foot

Thanks to feedback from a patient with a hearing aid, we were able to help a local physiotherapy practice make their service accessible for those who are D/deaf. 

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Correcting COVID vaccination records

At the height of the pandemic, many of us needed to interact with the NHS App to demonstrate our COVID vaccination status when booking boosters, travelling by plane and even to visit relatives in care. But where do you turn when your records are wrong?

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