Huge thanks to Emily Cramb for producing a 1st Class report. We don’t think such a study has been done before. We believe in best places for healthcare services. As many such best places should be local. But some have to be in centres of excellence to provide best quality care. If ‘best place’ isn’t local it must be accessible; with mutually convenient appointments; be able to get there and back reasonably easily by private vehicle or public transport; and be comfortable. We will now work with our local Integrated Care System to ensure accessibility is integrated as a vital aspect of health and social care services. We will also promote this to the NHS system as a whole. Integration is good; it needs to be much wider and include accessibility.
Peter Blackman, Chair, SWF Social Health & Care Group
Details of the challenges of accessibility from places in the area to get to the three local acute hospital services are in Appendix 7 to the Report.
Some comments in the report:
“My son who is severely disabled, is who I mostly visit the surgery with, or the pharmacy to collect his meds. Disabled parking can be a challenge.”
“All dentists in Place X seem to be upstairs and have no stairlifts for people like me with mobility issues”.
“Remote location can take 20-30 mins for ambulance to arrive, and that’s not including waiting for an ambulance to be available”
“I always add an extra 45-60 mins to allow for parking at Hospital 2. Prefer to go with my husband so he can park the car if I need to go in for my appointment. Means he has to take time off work too, when I could go alone if parking was easier.”
“Accompanied family member via emergency ambulance – couldn’t get a bus home as service ended until morning, had to spend £37 for a taxi home, which is half my weekly budget”.
“The prescription had to be picked up from the Hospital. So, I did a 15-mile journey there and a 15-mile journey back just to pick up for two seconds.”
The patients in this survey use GP surgeries (81.1%), general and acute hospitals (78%), community hospitals (73.2%), diagnostic tests (72%), pharmacies (69.7%) and dental services (64.6%). This wide-ranging report identifies four central themes:
- Transport barriers to accessing healthcare services
- Fragmented coordination and communication
- Service planning, policy and funding constraints, and
- Recommendations and opportunities for integrated and collaborative solutions.
The study provides important insights into what patients and carers based in this area have to do to access healthcare. It highlights:
- The multi-faceted nature of physical access
- Access to services such as GPs and hospitals is not only about distance, but also has structural, logistical and communicative barriers
- Transport difficulties, particularly for those reliant on public transport, and parking limitations for motorists are key challenges
- Communication, flexibility and cross-sector collaboration must improve.
Comments about the report are welcome addressed to swfhealthsocial@outlook.com