Getting to outpatient appointments

We were aware that a potential solution to issues in the NHS regarding quality of care, finances and safety of provision is to potentially locate specialist services in fewer locations, impatient on both inpatient and outpatient care.

We therefore set out to begin to understand the implications for local people of needing to travel outside of Coventry to access outpatient appointments and tests and the impact of this.

The aims of this piece of work were to:

1. To gather public views and experiences of getting to outpatient appointments and what choices and decisions people make
2. To gather information about how easy it is for people to travel longer distances for appointments
3. To begin to understand the implications for the population of traveling to outpatient appointments

Through a public survey we gathered the views of 205 local people. We made 5 recommendations to local NHS planners:

1. The frequency, connectivity and timing of public transport is improved to support access to hospital sites for those who live in Coventry and travel by public transport
2. Services are delivered as close as possible to where people live
3. There is consideration of the types of clinics which are provided at greater distance and the impact this will have on the specific patient group(s).
4. An understanding of what information will help people to be confident in travelling to unfamiliar hospital locations is developed
5. The development of smarter appointment booking systems enabling identification of appointment times to enable people travelling from Coventry to have easier journeys to locations such as St .Cross  in Rugby eg avoiding peak traffic flow periods.