Experiences of services for Fibromyalgia patients in Trafford
Download (PDF 3.84 MB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Trafford created a survey to ask people with Fibromyalgia about their general experience of health and care services.
It was brought to the attention of Healthwatch Trafford through complaints and comments that people with Fibromyalgia in Trafford felt that services were not always meeting their needs. As Healthwatch is evidence-based, they decided to conduct a piece of work to investigate the scope of these problems; to discover the numbers affected and the specific issues faced.
A survey was therefore produced to give people with Fibromyalgia the opportunity to share their experiences of using local services. The questions were informed by informal interviews conducted at South Manchester Fibromyalgia Support Group and further research online. The final survey was then put online at the end of July 2016 and remained open for 3 weeks in August 2016.
The report identifies a number of key issues in the area including:
82% unable to work or study full time
94% report quality of life has been affected
Ability to look after personal care needs (eating, bathing etc) affected in 41%
87% have a co-occurring illness
38% have at least one carer
63% have not been offered information on Fibromyalgia by the NHS
There were 9 specific recommendations made within the report.