South Norfolk and Broadland Waiting Well Evaluation
Download (PDF 409.15 KB)Summary of report content
South Norfolk and Broadland District Councils commissioned Healthwatch Norfolk to evaluate the effectiveness and value of the Waiting Well pilot scheme, by engaging with patients to gather their experiences of receiving support whilst on the waiting list for orthopaedic treatment. They spoke to 42 people.
They heard from 42 (52%) of those who we had contact details for, however 13 (31%) had no recollection of being contacted by South Norfolk and Broadland District Councils or were aware of what the Waiting Well scheme was.
Home adaptations were the most common requested support, with 21 (50%) of the 42 participants wanting to access this kind of support. The main reasons for people taking part in the scheme was to improve their quality of life or because they were struggling to cope. Additionally, several respondents took part because they were encouraged by the Council to do so.
The survey elicited a mixed response of both good and bad experiences of the Waiting Well scheme from participants. Whilst some participants received support in a prompt manner, others did not receive any support at all or were rejected/did not qualify for support that they were offered. Those who had an overall good experience were happy with both the speed in which they received support and the level of communication from the Council during the process.
Additionally, those who had a good experience receiving support from the Council felt that the support offered to them at the time was right for their needs and where participants were not sure what they needed assessments were offered to help identify suitable options. Those who had a negative experience of the Waiting Well scheme included those who did not receive support from the Councils or did not meet eligibility criteria for support. Others found that communication from the Councils was minimal, or non-existent, after the initial contact by a Council representative.
Several felt that a better follow up procedure should be in place to check that support has actually been received. One area that participants felt there needed to be improvements was regarding the information about the Waiting Well scheme. Few knew the scheme was called ‘Waiting Well’, furthermore participants felt that initial contact was out of the blue and would have preferred to have more information prior to the Council representative reaching out to them.
An area for concern was that participants were unaware that Healthwatch Norfolk would be contacting them to follow up and gather their feedback on their experiences of receiving support. Some were surprised to receive the initial contact from the Council and felt that written information prior to this would have been beneficial to understand how and why their contact information had been shared with the Council.
The report includes four recommendations on information, communication, follow up and transparency.