Access to healthcare for the boating community in Cheshire
Download (PDF 1.22 MB)Summary of report content
Local Healthwatch from both West Cheshire and East Cheshire joined together for this project and set out to understand the issues affecting the boating community (people who live on canal boats) in Cheshire in regard to accessing Healthcare. The report is intended to be used as a basis for further discussion by boaters and supporting organisations to have conversations with GP Surgeries, Clinical Commissioning Groups and local authorities around the issues raised during this research.
The research was completed from November 2017 to February 2018. There were four events for boaters to attend and give feedback on their Health and Care experiences, as well as a survey. They received 15 survey responses in total.
Despite concerns prior to the research, a positive finding was that many people they spoke to that lived in marinas or on the canals seemed to receive good support from GP’s, with people being able to register at practices without any issue, although some people had experienced difficulty in registering at certain GP Surgeries due to postcode issues.