Allied Health Professions
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This project was conducted by Healthwatch Kent working with Canterbury Christ Church University. Healthwatch Kent agreed to support the university with their course revalidation for allied health professions. This process involved accessing public insight to ensure that the university continues to train healthcare professionals to best serve the populations of Kent and Medway.
They wanted to understand what the public felt were the characteristics of an excellent Allied Health Professional and what qualities they valued most. This would then be incorporated into the course content being delivered at Canterbury Christ Church University. Overall, they utilised responses from 122 people about their experiences of being cared for by allied healthcare professionals.
The most common themes in the feedback on all allied healthcare professionals were:
- The importance of caring and compassionate staff
- Feeling listened to
- Waiting times for treatment
- Communication about treatment outcomes
- Impact on wellbeing
Feedback about physiotherapy was largely positive. A proportion of the negative comments related to issues that weren’t solely in the control of the Physio departments, including waiting times and the pathway to reaching the service.
Feedback about radiology was largely positive. A proportion of the negative comments related to issues that weren’t solely in the control of the radiology departments, including waiting times and the clinical pathway to reaching the service.
Feedback about paramedics, occupational, speech and language therapists was largely positive.