Accessing GP services in Rotherham

Healthwatch Rotherham decided to undertake a report looking into how Rotherham residents accessed GP services, due to the changes to services due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and  the number of enquiries they received from people experiencing issues with how they access their GP surgery.  They undertook a survey to which 227 people responded.

When booking appointments, people struggled to get through on busy telephone lines which is time consuming and inconvenient. The most popular methods of booking appointments were via telephone and the Rotherham Health App.

Most patients prefer a face to face appointment over a telephone appointment. Deaf people felt that telephone appointments are physically impossible for them as they cannot hear and rely on seeing a face to communicate effectively. Additionally, those who are hard of hearing reported a lack of BSL interpreters and a general lack of resources to support them at GP surgeries.

One of the most common issues was around the timing of telephone appointments. Many respondents weren’t given a specific time for their appointment, simply just morning or afternoon. This is particularly inconvenient for people at work who need to schedule some time to take a personal call.  People also complained that the Rotherham Health App frequently did not work and left them unable to book appointments. GPs weren’t providing access to Easy Read documents for people who needed them.

There were 7 recommendations.