Healthwatch in West Yorkshire highlights your issues with GPs, dentists and the cost-of-living crisis to health and care decision-makers
Feedback and experiences shared by our communities focuses on access to GPs, dentists and mental health services, while the growing effects of the cost-of-living crisis have also been highlighted.
The new report from Healthwatch in West Yorkshire - including Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield - will help ensure local voices are at the heart of West Yorkshire Health and Care Partnership's refreshed five-year strategy for how health and care services are planned and delivered.
The partnership, which is the integrated care system for our population of 2.4 million, is governed by a Partnership Board and incorporates a new organisation – NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, which this summer took over from local clinical commissioning groups as the body responsible for planning and buying services.
Feedback in the report has been gathered from Healthwatch engagement work, enquiries received by Healthwatch, and various other reports produced within the local system over the last 12 to 18 months.
GPs
We have heard that people feel local GP practices have not returned to “normal” after the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the way other services have; people have also shared concerns of poor communication and confusion about changes to how GP services are delivered, including difficulties in booking appointments, long telephone queues and confusion about online appointments.
Inconsistency between practices about whether you can get a face-to-face appointment is also highlighted in the report, along with concern over a decline in routine checks and the accessibility of practices.
Being unable to access a doctor has led to my health failing further and has affected my mental health.
Cost of living
We are hearing feedback about the cost-of-living crisis and the impact of this on people’s lives. People’s access to services and support can be affected if they do not have money to travel to appointments, do not have access to or cannot use smart devices, or are unable to pay for private care if NHS care is not available (including dentists).
Healthwatch has also heard from local organisations supporting people about the increase in the numbers of people seeking help and having to make difficult choices in their lives as well as the impact on people’s health, plus the challenges that can bring for many groups such as people living with serious illness, addictions and carers.
For example, stroke survivors talked about the importance of having access to physical activities to support their recovery and wellbeing, but this was becoming limited due to cost.
Concern has also been raised around barriers to accessing health and care services for specific communities who need language support and interpreters plus information that adheres to the Accessible Information Standard.
The cost-of-living crisis is a huge worry to an awful lot of carers about how they're going to manage. A lot of caring involves, people perhaps using taxis to get from A to B because the person they care for can't manage on public transport. With certain conditions, people with care needs need to live in an environment that perhaps is very warm, so they have and particularly, obviously over the winter, people very worried about having the heating on, having enough warm clothes to wear
What is Healthwatch doing?
As part of the integrated care system, we’re able to make your voice heard as part of the planning of services across West Yorkshire and in Bradford district and Craven, through reports such as this and on an ongoing basis.
We're also part of the national Healthwatch network. Healthwatch England is campaigning nationally, calling on the Government and NHS England to speed up dental contract reform and provide significant and sustained funding to tackle the underlying problems of dental access and affordability. Real people’s feedback and experiences are driving this work.
How can you help?
We need feedback from all our communities about experiences of health and care services to help make a difference.
All the feedback we receive WILL be heard and WILL make a differences. Take a couple of minutes to share your views. We’re here to hear your experiences of any local health and care service. Details about how care was good or bad are hugely important and can help build a picture of where improvements need to be made, or where good practice can be shared.
