HEALTHWATCH Darlington is collecting the views of scores of residents to help shape health services in the borough.

The organisation, formed to listen and act on patients’ views, has placed comment boxes around the town and has received 230 responses over the last three months.

All comments are entered into a competition and every three months a winner is selected at random to win a £25 shopping voucher.

EE employee Dan Wallis was the latest winner and his comment card praised his local GP Practice for being able to obtain an appointment when needed.

Recently Healthwatch has been reaching into the working population who often find local health services hard to access during normal working hours.

Representatives spent a day in the lobby of the Global Building at the EE site in Darlington to give hundreds of workers the chance to have their say.

Michelle Thompson CEO for Healthwatch Darlington, said: “I’m really pleased our comment boxes are attracting people’s attention as well as our access points where we provide face to face information and signposting to services.

“If it wasn’t for people like Dan taking the time to share his views, we would not be able to ensure the collective voice of local residents is not only heard and understood by those who buy or provide local health and social care services, but that their voices really do make a difference in influencing local decision making.”

To contact Healthwatch Darlington with your views and experiences of local health and social care services, call 01325-380145 or email info@healthwatchdarlington.co.uk