What does urgent care mean to me?
Download (PDF 257.96 KB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch Gateshead and Healthwatch Newcastle collaborated on a survey to ask people how quickly they expected to be seen by a health professional if:
1. They had an urgent health problem
2. Their young child (under 5) had a urgent health problem
3. Their vulnerable friend/relative had an urgent health problem.
307 people responded.
The survey found that most people, most of the time, would expect to be seen by a health professional within two hours if they had an urgent health problem. If their young child or vulnerable relative or friend had an urgent health problem even more people expected to be seen within two hours. However, only minimal differences were found when we examined the data by age, gender, ethnicity and postcode.
Where a difference emerged it was between the expectations of Gateshead residents when compared with Newcastle residents. In general, a higher percentage of Gateshead residents expected to be seen within two hours irrespective of whether they, their child or their vulnerable relative/friend had an urgent health problem. Many people talked about serious conditions, which might be defined as emergencies.