Findings from our engagement and survey

We have broken down the key findings of this survey into the 12 areas most commented on:

1. Key findings about access to health and care services in your community
2. Key findings about access to face-to-face appointments with your GP
3. Key findings about access to an NHS Dentist
4. Key findings about pressure on our local hospitals
5. Key findings about experience of receiving care and support
6. Key findings about working for health and care services in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
7. Key findings about preventing avoidable illness and disease
8. Key findings about helping you live independently in your own home
9. Key findings about access to services to support people’s mental health
10. Key findings about availability of home help and support for people to help them live at home from hospital
11. Key findings about support for carers
12. Key findings about information sharing between the people supporting people’s care including hospitals, GP, social workers, education providers etc

1. Key findings about access to health and care services in your community

Access to health and care services received the highest number of responses in the survey, at 130 people, with their top 5 responses relating to:

1. Getting a GP appointment
2. Healthcare issues – this included treatment and specific issues
3. Waiting times
4. Transportation and distance to services
5. NHS Dentistry

Some of the other feedback themes to arise on this topic included housing, funding, enhanced hours, communication issues and mental health services.

The responses were predominantly negative, with 123 people indicating their experiences had been poor and only 7 people providing a positive comment.

2. Key findings about access to face-to-face appointments with your GP

The topic to receive the second highest feedback responses from people was accessing face-to-face appointments with a GP, at 83 people.

It is worth noting that 34 people who provided feedback on the more general ‘access to health and care services in your community’ question option above also raised the issue of accessing a GP. This brings the total number of people who commented about ‘access to GP appointments’ to 117.

People’s responses to this question mostly focused on specific experiences and concerns about accessing a GP appointment, compared to more general responses given to the wider access to services question above, including:

• Responders explained some of the specific issues they had experienced when accessing face-to-face GP appointments, for example:
• Appointment phone call waiting times are extremely long;
• Triage of the receptionists is complicated; some people feel uncomfortable asking a receptionist to decide if a condition is urgent or not.
• Only available appointments are with paramedics or nurses.
• The benefits and differences of seeing someone face-to-face over an online consultation, indicating there are nuances in a face-to-face discussion that are at risk of being overlooked through an online or phone call appointment.
• Not being able to get past the receptionists.
• Getting a GP appointment but not with a specific GP who knows the person.
• Timescales from point of contact to seeing a GP are problematic, with responders commenting themes on this:
• Not being able to book routine appointments at all
• Many stated that they are having to call daily to book a routine appointment as it’s the only way their surgery accepts bookings. 
• Emergency appointments are few and subject to a lottery of calling in the morning.
• Desire to be able to self-serve and book routine appointments online
• Lack of later/out of working hours appointments – request for evening/weekend appointments
• Request for seeing doctor in person to prevent illness/early detection – the use of ‘health checks’ is an idea that comes across in other comments in the survey

3. Key findings about access to an NHS Dentist

Another topic that saw more people providing feedback in the ‘access to health and care services’ section was regarding access to an NHS dentist.

80 people in total indicated that it is incredibly difficult to acquire an NHS dentist, with some people still waiting after 5 years to be able to register and many people being without a dentist at all.

Some of the solutions to the problem included:

• More NHS dentists and incentives for private dentists to offer more NHS care
• More emergency dental centres
• More affordable dentistry

4. Key findings about pressure on our local hospitals

In total 74 people provided feedback about pressures on local hospitals, with 5 main areas highlighted in their responses including:

• Waiting times for treatment (11)
• Ambulance waiting times (9)
• The need/want for a second acute hospital in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly (7)
• Post-treatment care, bed-blocking and care packages (6)
• Staffing (5)

A selection of feedback and solutions were offered including:

• Accessing hospital worked well when referred directly from GP
• Reducing health risks by improving waiting times
• Fines for people who do not attend appointments
• Health care organisations to work together more
• More Minor Injury Units (MIUs) that function 24/7, as limited opening times causes problems
• Improved staffing levels

5. Key findings about experience of receiving care and support

A smaller number of people provided their experiences of receiving care and support, with a total 23 people sharing specific examples of individual care received including reports of poor treatment. Some of the feedback themes included:

• More integrated care needed – people and organisations working together more
• A lack of care provision
• Lack of specialised service
• Staffing concerns

Whilst there were responses that were negative, there were also 6 responses that were either suggestive of how services could be developed or positive of the treatment people had received. Some of the suggestions given to improve people’s experiences included:

• Continuity of care resources to be improved
• Make ear syringing available on the NHS

6. Key findings about working for health and care services in Cornwall and Isles of Scilly

22 people completed this section of the survey, with the key themes to emerge including:

• A disconnect between senior management and staff
• Poor communication between teams and organisations
• Poor pay
• Poor access to social workers
• Lack of services available
• Using the voluntary sector more to improve admission avoidance over hospital discharge
• Experiences of verbal and physical abuse

Some suggested measured given to improve these experiences included:

• Mental health support within teams
• New voluntary service single point of access
• Joined up working and IT service
• More pay
• Greater funding
• Improve communication systems across the sector
• Greater capacity

7. Key findings about preventing avoidable illness and disease

21 people completed this section of the survey, with suggestions to improve people’s experiences including:

• Enable people to be more responsible for their own health, such as more readily-available information related to self-care to be shared with people to enable better healthcare management
• More opportunities for health checks and identification of health problems early
• Develop an annual medical for people
• More holistic approaches to healthcare
• Devote more resources to preventative care

8. Key findings about helping you live independently in your own home

21 people completed this section of the survey, with suggestions to improve people’s experiences including:

• Exercise classes for the elderly
• Improve care support for people with long term conditions in the community
• Integrate services better

9. Key findings about access to services to support people’s mental health

19 people completed this section of the survey, with the key themes to emerge including:

• A lack of support
• Limited access and resources
• Need prevention services
• No rapid response options
• Extremely long waiting lists
• Improve staffing levels and training
• Improve and increase choices available
• Improve communication methods to reduce anxiety levels

10. Key findings about availability of home help and support for people to help them live at home from hospital

18 people completed this section of the survey, with the key themes to emerge including:

• No care or not enough care agencies available, causing problems for hospitals
• Need more targeted recruitment for care support workers
• More funding into the care sector
• Improve communication to speed up shared care
• More information readily-accessible in the community about the services available to people  

11. Key findings about support for carers

16 people completed this section of the survey, with the key themes to emerge including:

• More respite for care
• More funding for carers
• Support for carers is minimal
• Communication issues with adult social care services
• Knowing where to go for support

12. Key findings about information sharing between the people supporting people’s care including hospitals, GP, social workers, education providers etc

16 people completed this section of the survey, with the key themes to emerge including:

• Communication between GPs and patients is poor
• Ensure 111 has the most up-to-date and accurate information
• Records should be up-to-date and accessible by all providers
• More joined up thinking

2 people provided suggestions to improve people’s experiences including:

• Having a single point of contact where all information is accessible
• Suggestion of an ID card that can be scanned to provide key information about a person such as medication and allergies