What's new at Healthwatch Kirklees

Self-care secrets – fighting for winter wellness, female style!

October 9, 2023
Kirklees women share their self-care ‘people’s prescriptions’ for feeling and staying well this winter.   In the hustle and bustle of daily life, we often forget to prioritise the most important person in our lives: ourselves. But now’s the time to get those self-care winter prescriptions* at the ready as we share our top winter…

Would you know what to say to someone feeling suicidal?

September 6, 2023
  Join the effort to reduce West Yorkshire's above-average suicide rate People across West Yorkshire are encouraged to sign up as Suicide Prevention Champions and join efforts to reduce the area’s above-average suicide rate. The most recent figures show West Yorkshire continues to have a higher suicide rate than England as a whole, with a rolling three-year…

How to make a complaint to the NHS about primary care services (GP, pharmacy, dentist, optician)

July 4, 2023
UPDATE FROM NHS ENGLAND Information provided by NHS England, 1 July 2023: You have the right to complain about any aspect of NHS care, treatment or service, which is written into the NHS Constitution on GOV.UK.  From 1 July 2023, the way members of the public make a complaint about primary care services to the commissioner…

Helpful Information

Cost of Living Support

If you need help with financial support and debt advice, keeping your house warm and reducing energy bills, support with the cost of food, open warm spaces or mental health support then please visit:

Kirklees Council

Giving a voice to people who need it most

We’re working creatively across Kirklees and Calderdale to give a voice to people who feel unheard and/or who find it hard to access current ways of giving feedback to health and social care services.

Find out more

Helpful information and useful links

Links to information about finding a dentist, registering for a GP, accessing your medical records, and much more.

Helpful information and useful links

Reports Hub


From letter to appointment:
A volunteer-led project analysing the outpatient journey at Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust

Healthwatch Kirklees and Healthwatch Wakefield worked with Mid Yorkshire Teaching NHS Trust to gather patient feedback on hospital outpatient appointment letters. We aimed to understand patient experiences and improve the overall impact of the information provided by understanding how patients go from receiving a letter to getting to their appointment. We visited Dewsbury District Hospital, Pinderfields General Hospital, and Pontefract Hospital to navigate how patients find their way from the hospital entrance to the outpatient departments; we also conducted paper surveys during visits, online surveys, and reviews of appointment letters.

In this report, you’ll find:
• Feedback and recommendations about appointment letters
• Feedback and recommendations about booking lines and booking team
• Feedback and recommendations about navigation, signage and environment

By Healthwatch Kirklees and Healthwatch Wakefield
Hospital Accessibility

In Kirklees, over 3,800 people die yearly. For three-quarters of these people, death does not come suddenly. Instead, dying is a process that can take years, involving a progressive decline in functioning and frequent interactions with health and social care professionals. This means that there are earlier opportunities in people’s journeys to plan for their future care, supported by health and social care professionals.
Healthwatch Kirklees was asked to engage with people who had been bereaved in Kirklees to gather feedback on various aspects of care and support throughout their relatives’ or friends’ end-of-life journey. The findings and recommendations will be used to shape the work of the Dying Well Kirklees board.
In this report you’ll find:
• Key findings
• What’s working well and what could be improved
• Personal experiences and people’s ideas for improvements
• Changes we’d like to see and recommendations

End-of-life care Bereavement Dying Grief

Most recent
Joint Calderdale and Kirklees annual report for 2022/23 here: Healthwatch Kirklees and Healthwatch Calderdale – Annual Report 2021/22

annual report

women staying well running near Batley train station

Let your voice be heard

Between now and 30 November Healthwatch are taking an essential step to ensure that all women in our community are represented in how the health and social care system supports your health, wellbeing and ability to self-care. 

We’d like to invite women, girls and those who identify as female over the age of 16 to come and talk to us about: 

  • Health Management: How are you currently managing your health and wellbeing? 
  • Confidence Levels: How confident do you feel in your ability to self-care effectively? 
  • Ideas for Support: What do you think is needed to help women look after their health and wellbeing? 

Taking part is easy 
It’s quick and easy to share your experiences 


Have your say 

Thank you, your voices matter and you can find out how our engagement projects make a difference on in our project pages. Your feedback will be kept anonymous and gives health and social care service managers the information they need to make changes everyone in our community will benefit from. Find out more and read the Healthwatch self care secrets.