Out and About in Coventry: Community Voices
Hearing those with less voice, is one of Healthwatch Coventry’s aims: - to ensure that everyone’s experiences are heard. As a group which faces double disadvantages in terms of language barriers and are unpaid carers for loved ones, we visited the Milan Carers Group run by Carers Trust Heart of England to hear their members’ stories.
The Milan Carers Group are a group of people from South India who care for one of their relatives. Most of the group speak English as a Second language and are older people.
The group provides support and information about Adult Social Care and other services that support carers and to manage the different pathways and systems. This ensures they get the information and support they need and are entitled to. Craft activities, refreshments and fun provide a welcome break and opportunities for friendship and sharing experiences.
We asked them what their experience of health and care are, this is what they told us:
Technology and NHS App
Having to use an online form to get an appointment –
- “ find the form difficult and I have to wait 2 weeks for an appointment”
- One person spoke about struggling to get family members added on to the NHS app
Experience of GPs
- “Sometimes I don’t feel like the GP is listening, put it down to old age but we know our own body”
- “GPs don’t look at past records before appointment so having to explain ourselves again”
- “Why can’t GPs do home visits anymore? “
- One person said that they had an appointment booked and it was cancelled last minute, she then had to ring up in the morning at 8am to get a new appointment which was for 2 weeks time,
- “You can never seem to get your own GP”.
Communication
- Not getting letters in the post about appointments
Accessing Appointments
- “The 8am ring to GP surgery to try and get an appointment, there is always a long queue and sometimes when you get down to first in queue then the phone cuts off”
Accident and Emergency
- The waiting room in A&E is tiny
- One person shared their experience of long wait in A&E a couple of years ago- turned up at 9pm but didn’t get seen until 3pm the next day
Social Care
- One person spoke about issues with the adaptation team – an assessment has taken place.
- “Didn’t hear anything so contacted them and a new assessment needed to take place again”
Our thoughts
Caring for someone at any age is difficult work, for the carers who take part in the Milan group, it feels like services are not flexible and don’t know enough about their needs. Carers don’t feel services realise the responsibilities they have and the challenges they face. They are responsible for supporting their cared person for appointments, visits to hospital alongside meeting their own needs. So cancelled appointments and “lost” information makes managing their situation more difficult.
A lot of responsibilities are put on the carer to chase information or spend precious time repeatedly explaining their situation to services. Online forms and apps are also difficult for older people who have English as a second language and whose cared for person may not speak English at all. Perhaps GPs and other services could have a flag on their systems which identifies them as carers, and if they have this, make sure it is followed.
What's 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.
Call to action
Help us make a difference – tell us your stories of health and social care, whether your experience is bad/ indifferent or good let us know what you think.
Healthwatch can help you get your messages , views and experiences across to those in power to help improve services.
