The Government's decision to abolition Healthwatch is an opportunity to put patients at the centre of healthcare improvements, according to The King's Fund.

In new research, the think-tank said there was a ‘genuine opportunity to preserve the strengths of the Healthwatch model while adapting to new realities'.

The decision to abolish Heathwatch was announced in June 2025 following the Dash review which recommended transferring the functions of Healthwatch England to the DHSC with the role of the 153 local Healthwatch organisations given to ICBs and local government.

The King's Fund said if the Government was serious about transferring power to the patient in its 10-Year Health Plan ‘it must take seriously what might be lost with the abolition of Healthwatch'.

It said there were serious concerns about the ongoing independence of the patient voice given the transfer of its functions to central and local government.

In addition, it said there was a risk of very different arrangements being put in place across the country by ICBs and local government, as a result of a lack of national direction.

On the positive side, the research welcomed the creation of a National Director of Patient Experience within the DHSC as having the ‘potential to give patient experience the prominence it currently lacks, but only if it carries sufficient authority, visible cross-Government reach and an explicit mandate to challenge and co-ordinate efforts across departments'.

In conclusion, the report said: ‘This moment enables the system to move beyond collecting views on existing services and towards a more mature model that listen, collaborates and works with people to shape meaningful change in how care is experienced.'

It added: ‘Any future model must focus not only on how people's voices are gathered but how they are acted upon.'

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Olli Potter, policy and public affairs manager at Picker, said ‘the model that follows the planned abolition of Healthwatch England must safeguard an independent public voice'.

Potter added: ‘This is essential to enhancing the system's capability to understand and act on people's experiences of health and social care, and to ensure the ability to speak truth to power.'