Reaching out to our community
We strive to make sure we hear from as wide a range of our diverse community as possible. We want to tell the people who make decisions and change things about the experiences everyone has with health and care services. We understand that factors such as culture, location, wealth, education, environment and discrimination can lead to worse health outcomes, and we support the strong consensus that this must change. At Healthwatch, we stand ready to help by doing more to amplify the voices of communities that go unheard and reduce the barriers they face."
Autism GP Guidance
We had feedback that Autistic patients often found getting, and attending, GP appointments to be very difficult – people felt their needs weren’t understood by the GP practices.
Together with Autistic County Durham residents, we produced a guidance document for GP surgeries to help them provide better support to their Autistic patients.
We listened to the experiences of people in our area and used their words and suggestions to create some simple ‘top tips’ that GP practices should keep in mind.
We know that every patient has very different needs, and our document can’t cover every situation – but we hope that it will be a reminder of some of the more commonly reported difficulties autistic patients experience, and prompt GP Practice staff to consider their needs more carefully.
To read more visit our news article here:
Ukranian GP Advice
Ukrainians adapting to life in Durham City told us they didn’t understand how the GP system worked as it was different to the Ukrainian system. To make this easier, we provided a one-page summary explaining how their local GP surgery operates.
To reach as many Ukrainian people as possible, we also shared this summary with some on-line Ukrainian communities and both the County Council’s “Homes for Ukraine” scheme and their “Community Action” department.
Another concern was around how those planning to return to Ukraine could take their UK health records with them. There was already an established procedure for this, but it wasn’t widely known – we have helped to promote and explain the process, offering reassurance that those records will not be lost when people return to their homes.
These actions have helped Ukrainians in Durham to feel more settled and confident in accessing health care.
If you would like a copy of the guidance get in touch. A Ukrainian version is available.
07821650442
Middle Eastern Patient Experience Team
Working in partnership with the County Durham and Darlington Federation Trust, Patient Experience Team, we were able to improve the service a middle eastern woman and her son received.
The woman concerned speaks some English as a second language but felt that the language barrier meant her son’s care was less than the normal, high standard she expected - she hadn’t been given enough information to be sure she understood what was wrong with her son and how to deal with it.
We contacted the Patient Experience Team concerned and, as a result, an investigation took place. The woman has now received a written response and an apology in Arabic. A “wonderful” response, she said, that was “appreciated”.
As well as ensuring that the woman could fully understand her son’s health needs and treatment, we also raised the issue of how the hospital staff can make sure they communicate effectively with patients.
RNIB Posters
Working with information supplied by Royal National Institute for the Blind, we changed the way we produce posters that share information or advertise events so that people with sight impairment can more easily get all of the information. With posters, a lot of the information is often in picture form, and technology to help people with sight impairments to read can’t always translate images. We started including ‘Alt Text’ which adds a description of what is in the pictures, so this can be read by assistive technology.
As well as improving our own accessibility, our host organisation - Pioneering Care Partnership - also adopted this approach, making the impact of our change much bigger and improving information for more people.
Reasonable Adjustments
A gentleman (Mr P) contacted us worried about getting urgent GP appointments. As part of his ongoing treatment with the GP he often needs an urgent appointment to see his Doctor. He was finding when he contacted the medical practice the receptionists were only offering him routine appointments several weeks in advance. He contacted Healthwatch to let us know of his situation. With his consent we contacted the GP practice and following his feedback there will be additional communication with the reception staff to use the patient plans when speaking with a patient
This plan holds important information such as any accessible information needs, reasonable adjustment requests and important information about the patient. Going forward this plan will flag these needs to receptionists to offer the individualised care to the patient therefore improving the service for them and everyone.