What is Enter and View?

Advice and Information - 21 July 2022

As a local Healthwatch, we are able to visit health and social care services (such as hospitals and GP surgeries) and see them in action. This is called 'Enter and View'. Our goal is to identify what's working well and where improvements are needed.
Two young women standing outside a hospital, looking at a clipboard.

All local Healthwatch have the legal power to carry out an Enter and View visit. We normally visit for between a few hours and a day, and always let a service know when we'll be coming.

During our visit, we'll speak to anyone who is available on the day. This includes patients, staff, family members/visitors, and carers. We carry out Enter and View visits to identify examples of good practice that can be celebrated, and to find out if there are any concerns.

After our visit, we'll write up a report that we can share with the service provider. Our report will include the feedback people have shared with us, any evidence we've recorded, and our overall insights. All feedback is anonymised, so people who speak to us during our Enter and View visits cannot be identified.

Enter and View visits can come about for a number of reasons. A service may invite us, we may receive a number of pieces of positive or negative feedback about a service, or the Care Quality Commission can also ask us to carry out an Enter and View visit.

It's important to remember that Enter and View is not an inspection. Only the Care Quality Commission can inspect health and social care services.

The services we can visit include:

  • NHS Trusts
  • NHS Foundation Trusts
  • Local authorities
  • Dentists
  • Primary medical services, such as GPs
  • Pharmacies
  • Opticians
  • Premises which are contracted by local authorities or the NHS to provide health or care services, such as adult social care homes and day care centres

If you have any concerns about an NHS service or would like to share positive feedback, click here to fill in our feedback form.

All of our authorised Enter and View representatives been trained and are issued with ID badges. Our accredited representatives are:

Staff:

  • Helen West
  • Jacqui Reeves
  • Julie Bird
  • Anna King

Volunteers:

  • Catherine Szewczyk
  • Dave Crofton
  • Ifunanya Aniagoh
  • Jan White
  • Jemma Ballinger
  • Julie Kell
  • Loming Wong
  • Melanie Cooper
  • Pat Turton
  • Tricia Godfrey
  • Sarah Mercer

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