Out and About in Coventry: Community Voices
Who are Foleshill Creates?
Foleshill Creates is a small charity that brings people together through art to improve their health and wellbeing, as well as enabling people to use and enjoy their artistic talents. It is led by Daksha who helped us to attend the session, our title of the artwork for this day was “what does a good health or care service look like to you”. Participants had card, pencils, paint pens to use to create their piece of art. We were able to speak to 15 people about their experiences.
Foleshill is a richly diverse area of the city which has a mixture of religions and places of worship, an age range younger than the City average, a population that is constantly changing with new communities, but also with a higher levels of poverty. The number of people who speak little or no English is higher than the City average.
These are some of the things they told us:
GPs
- “One doctor refused to examine me because I had a spot in an awkward place, I was going to complain, but it was too difficult. I complained to the surgery and they got someone else to look”.
- “You get fobbed off/ not listened to”
- “You are only allowed one issue, difficult when you have lots of issues that are related to a particular condition”
- “No longer any covid jabs – they could have let people know, I booked to find they don’t do it anymore”
Hospital
- “I waited 20 hours in hospital in A&E”
- “Had to wait a long time for surgery”
- “UHCW outpatients for eye check - they were brilliant”
- “Back and forth, back and forth – could be better organised”,
- “Staff and ward were brilliant”
- “Some nurses aren’t very friendly”
- “They don’t explain things to you properly”
Images created by members of the group:
What could improve?
- Communication between GPs Doctors and patients
- For GPs to listen to what patients say to them
- For GPS to understand that it is harder for older people from different backgrounds to keep going in to see them for one thing at a time, when there are many related issues to discuss
- Longer appointment times to share more information.
This group seemed to have an overall positive experience of their health services, but more listening and time to speak with a GP would be valued. For people with more complex health needs they feel that these should be discussed together and not separately. Foleshill creates provides a safe space for sharing ideas and information while creating art.
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.
