A local diagnosis: learning the lessons of community diagnostic centres
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Healthwatch England wanted to understand people's experiences of using community diagnostic centres. They commissioned 18 Healthwatch to carry out enter and view visits of local community diagnostic centres. They spoke to 282 people during the enter and view visits. Healthwatch England also commissioned polling of 2060 people to understand people's expectations and preferences about diagnostic services.
Almost everyone (93%) felt they had good experiences at Community Diagnostic Centres (CDCs).
Almost a third of the general public (31%) said getting the tests done quickly was their top priority when choosing where to get a diagnostic test.
Most people weren’t offered a choice of location (78%) or time (61%) around their appointments – people said they would have liked a choice when the appointment given wasn’t ideal for them.
Local Healthwatch teams identified accessibility issues at several sites, including:
failing to meet people’s communication needs.
barriers for d/Deaf people and people experiencing hearing loss.
issues with English language interpretation.
barriers for people with mobility difficulties, Autism, and dementia.
Visiting the CDC was convenient for most people Healthwatch spoke to – 70% arrived in less than 30 minutes, and 26% arrived in less than an hour.
People were concerned about issues caused by a lack of information about how to get to the site