News and reports

The Tet Lunar New Year celebration at Woolwich Community Centre offered a vibrant snapshot of culture, community and connection, as Greenwich Vietnamese Women’s Group welcomed Healthwatch Greenwich to join an afternoon filled with tradition, shared heritage and multigenerational joy.

A new NHS pilot—soon expanding to Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust—is introducing cutting edge AI and robotic technology to help diagnose lung cancer earlier and with fewer invasive tests.

At Healthwatch Greenwich, we champion local initiatives that improve the health and wellbeing of residents. We are pleased to highlight an important development at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), where patients undergoing chemotherapy are now benefiting from innovative new technology funded by the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust Charity.

As part of our Raising Awareness of Abuse project, we hosted a safeguarding awareness session at St Peter’s Church in Woolwich, following Sunday Mass for Black Christian community. Around 60 local residents, many of who told us they had never heard 'safeguarding' explained in plain terms, before.  

In January, we joined the Muslim women’s group at Woolwich Community Centre for a conversation about safeguarding and abuse. Women discussed wider realities from domestic and financial pressures, to the ways racism and discrimination shape both risk and access to help.  

In December 2025 and January 2026, Healthwatch Greenwich had the opportunity to share learning from our HPV project at two South London system events: the South East London Early Cancer Diagnosis Forum and the ARC South London Knowledge Exchange Event. These conferences brought together clinicians, public health teams, GPs, practice managers, cancer alliance partners and a small number of voluntary and community organisations to explore how cancer prevention and early diagnosis can be improved.

This quarter, we heard from 511 Greenwich residents about their experience of health and care services in Greenwich.

The Royal Borough of Greenwich is inviting residents and people who work in the borough to take part in the Big Local Plan Community Event, an exciting opportunity to help shape the future of Greenwich.

Healthwatch Greenwich has been working alongside ten grassroots organisations supporting marginalised communities to understand how safeguarding is understood, discussed and acted on in everyday neighbourhood life. What we heard was consistent and it points to trust and relationships as the deciding factor in whether safeguarding works at all.

Join us for our Annual General Meeting and help us shape our future plans.

Download the full report and summary report at the end of this page.

Each November, Safeguarding Adults Week invites organisations across the country to reflect on what we can do to keep people safe from harm. This year’s theme is “Prevention: Act Before Abuse”. It’s a call to shift the safeguarding conversation from reaction to prevention, encouraging people to act earlier, listen sooner, and strengthen communities, so people feel confident seeking help.