Public consultation on Urgent out of hours GP service

Healthwatch Herefordshire was commissioned by Taurus Healthcare to carry out a six week consultation on a proposed change to the urgent out of hours GP service.  They spoke to 605 people via a survey and focus groups.

This project gathered responses from of a variety of people., ages and areas of Herefordshire with different personal circumstances and therefore produced a mixed collection of opinions regarding proposed changes to the urgent out of hours GP service. 

Obviously, depending on where someone lives, whether they drive or not and whether they have people around them to help them all affects the use of this service and how much of an impact the proposed changes would have on them. However, as seen in the results of question 3, the largest proportion of people (43.87%) highlighted that the proposed changes to where the service is delivered would make no difference to them. This is mainly because of it being an out of hours service where there is limited, or no public transport and the majority of people would need to drive or be driven to access the service in the same way that currently exists. The results from the focus groups were clearer showing the majority of people saying that moving the location of the service would make no difference to them. T

he results from the focus groups are likely to be more in the favour of the proposed move making no difference as a lot of the focus groups were in the surrounding areas and market towns of Herefordshire, where the likelihood is that they would need to drive to this service out of hours, so where it is located in Hereford city isn’t too much of a concern. The market towns it is likely to have the biggest impact on is Ledbury or Bromyard. There were discussions in Ledbury that there is a train service from Ledbury into Hereford and therefore the current location is easier if you are using this means of transport at the weekend during the day, the same is the case for Leominster, however not as many people in Leominster highlighted it as an issue. The focus groups did allow for discussion regarding the challenges to people in the market towns accessing services if they don’t drive, but it was acknowledged that these challenges exist already. Transport was the main theme of this consultation, particularly for the elderly who may not drive or be confident driving in Hereford city, and therefore it is suggested that health services should link with transport services to provide solutions for the public regardless of what area of the city or county they live.

The importance of communication with the public has become increasingly apparent within this consultation to avoid confusion about the various services within the health system and who runs particular services. It was clear that there are people who wouldn’t know the difference between the various out of hours services, nor who operates them and increased knowledge about this may help the different services to be used more effectively. 

The resources that Healthwatch Herefordshire used to inform the public about details of the proposed changes to this service showed the architect plans for parking and refurbishment of the proposed building. The public reinforced this message commenting about the need for plenty of parking (including disabled and parent child bays, that were wide enough each side). 

They also reinforced the message of good lighting and signage for the area and the building. In several of the questions, there were concerns regarding the situation with pharmacies. It was highlighted that with the new proposed location, the nearest supermarket has now closed their pharmacy (Sainsbury’s). Taurus healthcare should consider this challenge and try to find solutions/suggestions for the public, so it is available to be communicated to them when they need it.