Carers Of People With Dementia- Experience Of Access To Primary Care

Healthwatch Bracknell Forest were invited to the Bracknell Dementia Forum. The forum was attended by carers for People with Dementia and the cared for along with various service providers.

Part of the forum was a desktop exercise in which the carers and cared for were asked ‘What would make them feel safer’. One of the top three answers was ‘easier access to primary care’. Healthwatch Bracknell Forest wanted to explore this further.

This Healthwatch project and report seeks to understand the various means of access to primary care, and carers of people with Dementia experiences when trying to access primary care services.

Being able to access services and appointments via Klinik on the surgery website, in addition to accessing appointments via Klinik over the phone and in person, has increased options and is beneficial to large parts of the population. However, more than 80% of carers of people with dementia don’t have the skills or tools to take advantage of the new access options and can feel left behind. 

Carers for people with dementia caring responsibilities can be very time consuming, exhausting and stressful. Their responsibilities don’t always enable them to call the GP surgery at 08:00 in the morning and even if they can call, the caring needs mean they can’t necessarily wait in a long queue. Some had used the ‘call back’ option to avoid waiting in a phone queue but they had experienced problems, for example, not being able to get to the phone in time when the surgery rang back because of their caring responsibilities. Many don’t have a mobile phone and so rely on a house phone and it can take them some time to get to the phone. 

Going to the surgery to try and fill out a Klinik form can also be difficult for them due to their caring responsibilities. There are difficulties too if they have to travel to a surgery within their PCN when it is not their local surgery. Difficulty accessing GP appointments causes carers real concerns about the health of the person they are caring for and they also had particular concerns about their own health and the implications on those they care for should they as the carer become too unwell.

Carers for people with Dementia and those they care for, would greatly benefit if reasonable adjustments could be made for them when accessing primary care. As highlighted by NHS England. The Equality Act (2010) places a legal duty on all health and care services to make changes to their approach or provision to ensure that services are as accessible to people with disabilities as they are for everyone else. This duty aims to address the recognition that people with disabilities may appear to have equal access to care and services, but without specific adjustments being made, that access may not be equitable.

The report has five recommendations.