Access to Primary Care and Social Care Services in Islington for Latin American over 50s

The Latin American Women’s Rights Service (LAWRS) and the Coalition of Latin Americans in the UK (CLAUK) wanted to work with Healthwatch Islington to gather evidence from the underrepresented, over 50 Latin American community residing in Islington, while focusing on their to access to Primary Care and Social Care Services. This community in Islington is generally older and came in the initial waves of refugees from Chile, Argentina and Colombia in the 70s and 80s.

For this report (LAWRS) carried out 2 focus groups and one to-one interviews with Latin American women residing in Islington, while CLAUK carried out phone surveys with Latin American men residing in Islington. Healthwatch Islington analysed the results and drafted a report to be agreed by both organisations.

HW Islington’s findings revealed that the Latin American community’s awareness of the Primary Care services was overall good especially when accessing GP, dentistry and pharmacy but most did not know about sexual health services, psychotherapy, optometry services or the walk-in centre. It was reported that although all respondents were registered with a GP there were several barriers to accessing some services such as; Language, availability and length of appointments, lack of referrals and reliance on online booking and information for patients who were not comfortable using technology. Several respondents reported a good relationship with their GP but several reported finding a lack of understanding around mental health and holistic support. There were several respondents who had unresolved medical problems and not many were aware of the routine health checks on offer. The report goes on to show findings on access to social services.

HW made the recommendations below:

Written information in Spanish and Portuguese should be available for patients about GP practice as should face to face interpreters in these languages. Where possible, GPs could try and accommodate longer appointments when interpreters are needed to give patients time to ask the GP about their treatment, via the interpreter. Medical and administrative staff should be trained about how to work with non-English speakers, migrants and people from other cultures in general. Training should focus on the particular challenges these service users face. It is important for doctors, nurses, and administrative staff to make services more inclusive to residents, especially older ones, who have limited or no access to a computer. A leaflet or publication should be produced in Spanish and Portuguese highlighting different social care services from the NHS in Islington and how to access them.