Advice and Information

The cost of living crisis has put many people under financial strain, and NHS prescriptions costs are more than some can afford. Find out what help is out there to help you cover the cost of your medication.

Do you struggle to speak to your doctor about your medical concerns? You’re not alone. Take a look at our top tips to make the most of your GP appointment.

People are often in need of out-of-hours medical assistance. Using NHS guidelines, we have provided some advice and information on where you can go for help when your GP is closed.

The Community Wellbeing Champion Awards are a celebration of Hartlepool’s often unsung heroes who selflessly make a difference to the wellbeing and lives of others in their community. We are looking for nominations for two Wellbeing Champions, one for a Young Champion (aged under 18) and one for an Adult Champion (aged 18+)

Download an Easy Read version of our 'Have your say' form.
Take five minutes to share your experiences
We work to make sure health and care services are the best they can be for the people who use them.
We want to know if you think there are things that health and care services can do to improve.
We have created an interactive Easy Read version of our 'Have your say' form to help more people share their views with us.

Let's talk about what matters to women and girls about their health.
In our region, we want better and fairer health for all women and girls. Even with the progress we've made, women and girls still face challenges when it comes to their health. We want to change this.
Listening and acting on the views and experiences of women is a key part of making the changes we want to see happen – which is why we have launched our BIG conversation to better understand what's working well and what we can improve. The views we hear will directly feed into our plans for the women's health in the region.
Please fill in a short survey, to have your say, by 8th September. If you fill in the survey, you can join a prize draw for a £100 Love to Shop voucher.
Working with Healthwatch we will also be running six focus groups alongside this survey. These groups will reach out to women from seldom heard groups such as people with a learning disability, unpaid carers, and women with maternal mental health challenges.

GP Practice services have changed to meet increasing demand and respond to local health care needs.
Healthwatch Hartlepool have produced a booklet called "Top Tips for Accessing your GP Practise", that gives advice and information on the many services available at your local GP practice.
Click here to download our booklet!

Independent NHS Complaints Advocacy supports people to raise their concerns and complaints about NHS care and treatment.
Call our helpline on 03003 038037 for information, guidance and support. 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday.

The impact of prescription charges on people living with long term conditions - The Prescription Charges Coalition (PCC) ran a survey between February and March this year.
Click on the link to read their report!

Bowel cancer is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, The NHS bowel cancer screening kit detects signs of cancer before you notice anything wrong. Detecting it at the earliest stage makes it up to 9 times more likely to be successfully treated. So if you're aged 60 to 74 (lowering to 50 by 2025), live in England and registered with a GP practice, you’ll be sent a kit in the post automatically, every two years. The kit is quick and simple to complete and can be done in the privacy of your own bathroom using the step-by-step instructions on the box. You only need to collect one tiny sample of poo using the plastic stick provided, pop it in the sample bottle and post it for free, to be tested.
The test works by checking for tiny traces of blood, which may not be visible to the naked eye. Blood in your poo is one of the signs of bowel cancer but does not always mean cancer. Instead, it could be a sign of piles or polyps (growths in the bowel). Polyps are not cancer but could develop into cancer over time.

What are the aims of the project?
The research will give autistic people the chance to share their experiences of their autism diagnostic assessment to help us understand the support they received before, during and after the assessment and identify other types of support that might have been helpful. The survey is open to people who: are over 18 and have gone through or are waiting for an autism diagnosis, do not also have a learning disability and live in the North East or North Cumbria region. If this applies to you, please share your experiences with us by completing our online survey using the link below.