GP service experience in a temporary hotel within Oldham

Healthwatch Oldham heard from the Red Cross Asylum Seeker and Refugee Network in Oldham that refugees were experiencing problems accessing GPs.  They undertook a survey to which 29 people responded.

The majority of people  are registered with the GP. There was however inconsistency in the length of time after arriving at the hotel that this registration occurred. The majority of people waited more than 2 weeks to be registered and 5 people reported they waited more than a month. 12 people said that they have not had a patient health check and a further 7 were unsure. 

Over half the people were aware of when the GP visits the hotel, but a significant number (13 out of the 29) did not know. There was a similar mix when asked if people knew how to make a GP appointment, with 14 (out of the 29) that did not know how to do this or know that you can book to see the GP outside of the Friday visits (19 out of 29). The majority of the appointments were carried out at the time they were made. 

In terms of the experiences with the appointments themselves, a number of people (13 out of 29) were not offered interpreters and struggled to communicate with the doctor about what was important to them. 

There were some positive experiences of the appointments shared with us, where medical needs were met. However, there was a relatively high number of negative experiences shared which include experiences where the appointment was rushed, where people didn’t feel appropriately listened to or that their medical needs were addressed.

The report contains five recommendations.