Cumbria health on call: Independent review of patient experience
Download (PDF 4.25 MB)Summary of report content
Cumbria Health on Call (CHoC) commissioned Healthwatch Cumbria to independently carry out an engagement project to establish how its patients felt about their experience of the out of hours service.
Healthwatch Cumbria designed and constructed a survey gathering 1676 peoples views between September and November 2016.
The report identified a number of findings including:
- Respondents were overall very positive about their experience of CHoC.
- Some respondents believed that they were not given a good diagnosis.
- Respondents commented positively about the CHoC doctors and nurses, praising their excellent manner.
- Dissatisfaction with calling the 111 phone service which was considered time consuming and could delay treatment.
- Main reason respondents chose to access CHoC was for reassurance and advice; people liked knowing there was help available for them out of hours if they were unwell.
Patient comments collected included:
- ‘the service was excellent, very smooth running with minimum of waiting’
- ‘the Doctor was lovely and reassuring’
- ‘reassuring to know that you can get help at the weekend even though it is not an emergency.’
The report made four main recommendations:
- Share the learning about 111 with the North West Ambulance Service (NWAS).
- Explore why people aren’t always seen at the given times and ensure that they are advised when and why appointment times change.
- Improve availability of information to help people know how to contact and access CHoC.
- Explore variation in waiting times and seek to provide greater equity of service.
There was no response from the provider included.