Out and About in Coventry: Community Voices

About the group

The Wellness Junction is a community organisation based in Broad Street Meeting Hall which encourages people to stay active and well, reducing isolation and loneliness. It has  sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays where  people from all walks of life from 40 to 96 years old and from the local area meet up to do exercise classes (like chair yoga, sing along to songs they remember,  everything from Asian songs to Bob Marley and Elvis.), get support from the volunteers and group, learn new information and make friends.

We visited them to hear their voices and experiences of health and care.

Find out more information about the group

Our visit

The group is made up of residents from across the city, but with a focus on Paradise and Foleshill areas. 

When Healthwatch Coventry attended, we spoke to 31 people (3 men and 28 women). We asked them what their experiences of health and social care were. Here are some of their comments:-

Hospital 

• Long waits in A&E, hard seats and uncomfortable for a long wait
• Parking at hospital is always an issue even with a blue badge.
• Cancelled appointments.
• Medication in hospital missed.
• Why does it take so long between getting a scan and then receiving the results? 

GP

• Hard to see their own or senior GP.
• Issues using app and online systems – older people struggle with this, especially if isolated.

Pharmacies

• Pharmacies – they are closing earlier so it is harder to get to them especially when you are sometimes signposted to these services.
• There aren’t enough pharmacies open 24 hours and if you don’t have transport then it’s even harder to get to them. 

Social Care 

It’s hard to get social care organised for you when you get your loved one home from hospital. Find out more more about caring for someone when they leave hospital.

Complaints

People were worried about being treated differently if they made a complaint “feels like they don’t make any changes, so it puts you off making a complaint.” 

What next

These stories will form part of the information and knowledge that Healthwatch holds to inform future projects and to use when speaking to services about  some of the issues that people experience in health and social care.