Protect the Future of Local Healthwatch – Sign our Petition
Healthwatch Nottingham & Nottinghamshire urge you to sign our petition to review the decision to abolish independent local Healthwatch.
The government’s new NHS 10-Year Plan, announced at the end of June 2025, includes a proposal to scrap Healthwatch England and every local Healthwatch, including Healthwatch Nottingham and Nottinghamshire.
If this happens, patients would lose the only statutory, independent organisation dedicated to hearing people’s health and social care experiences.
Local Healthwatch isn’t just about listening — we:
- Use your insight to drive meaningful change at both local and national levels.
- Help people navigate the complex health and care system.
- Signpost you to trusted, accurate information when you need it most.
- Speak up for those whose voices are often ignored — older residents, carers, people with disabilities, and communities who face barriers to accessing services.
If our local Healthwatch is abolished:
- Patients across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire would lose their independent champion.
- Feedback could be reduced to tick-box surveys or online ratings, missing the real-life experiences we hear every day.
- Decision-makers could become more distant from what’s actually happening in our hospitals, GP surgeries, and care services.
Instead of dismantling independence, we should be strengthening it.
A national petition is calling on the government to:
- • Revisit its decision to abolish local independent services that speak up for the public
• Consult with the public to codesign a service which meets their needs and supports the NHS to realise its ambitions
• Invest in and strengthen independent services
You can read and sign it here:
Local Healthwatch have put together a petition calling on the government to protect the independence of local voices in health and care, and we ask for your support in signing it to keep our independent services that give the public a voice in NHS and Social Care.
How You Can Help
- Sign and share the petition above.
- Write to your MP — tell them why patients need an independent Healthwatch.
- Share your story — the more voices we gather, the harder we are to ignore.
Write to your MP
File download
Letter to MP (Template)
