Views of people in Bicester primary care, Oxfordshire
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In October 2017 Healthwatch Oxfordshire spent two weeks in Bicester engaging with the people of the town about their experiences of using health and social care services.
Healthwatch Oxfordshire initially organised an information fair for people at the John Paul II Centre, where 24 different organisations were on hand to offer people information support and advice on health and care. Over a two-week period Healthwatch Oxfordshire spoke to people at the Bicester market, on three consecutive Fridays attended Whitelands Farm Sports Pavilion and had a stall in the library and visited nine community and self-help groups.
Contact was made with around 450 people. 272 comments were collected about people’s health and social care experiences via face to face contact and questionnaires returned by freepost. In addition more in-depth experiences from 20 people were collected on visits to the different groups.
The main findings from this work were:
• People value the quality of care and the staff that deliver services.
• People feel concerned about the availability of adequate health and social services and their ability to access them.
• Concerns about the pressures on GP services, and their experience of the lack of NHS dentists and mental health services in Bicester against a backdrop of rapid expansion in the town.
• People also expressed concern about the changes to Day Centre Services that were taking place at the time of the project.
• Questions around the current range of services provided at the Community hospital in Bicester, were highlighted, with the request for an increase in access to minor injuries services including Xray facilities at the Community hospital.
Healthwatch Oxfordshire urge service commissioners and providers to use this report as a starting point to produce a detailed plan for future health and social care provision for Bicester taking into account the most up-to-date estimates of the likely extent, nature and timing of the projected population growth in the area.