Healthwatch 100: Autumn Winter survey 2022

To mark the end of 2022, we wanted to launch a survey and hear from local people about health and care in the borough, to act as a snapshot of the situation after another challenging year. We were interested in finding out how much things had changed and what remained an ongoing concern for residents.

The survey was opened in September 2022 and closed in November 2022. As well as promoting the survey online, we also engaged with several local community groups through November and December to get their insight. 

We want to thank all the members of the public that took part, as well as our volunteers who assisted in the review stage of the project.

What did we do?

The survey was opened in September 2022 and closed in November 2022. It was sent out to our Healthwatch 100 subscriber list, promoted on our website, and shared across social media. We also visited local groups during this time and promoted the survey there.

Key findings

The feedback we received was sorted into five main categories:

• GP practices
• Mixed services
• Hospitals
• Dentistry
• General (non-specific) comments

People across all categories were concerned about waiting times for and access to care. People were especially worried about digital access and felt excluded by small appointment booking windows.

The survey findings reflected the wider discussion about health and social care happening in the media, with GP appointments and hospital beds featuring in people’s feedback.

Who did we speak to?

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Highlights from the responses

Most people mentioned GP services (36%) with the next most mentioned areas being hospital outpatients’ appointments (12%); dentists (12%); and pharmacies (11%).

We often hear more about GP services than other areas. In recent years this has been closely followed by dentistry.

Key topics highlighted were:

• AskMyGP
• GP appointment times
• Good quality care
• Young people's mental health support
• General waiting times
• Ambulances
• Long COVID support
• Administrative issues
• Hospital admission and discharge
• Lack of dental care
• Social care difficulties

Here are selected comments from Trafford residents:

• ““I have tried to use the Ask My GP service on a few occasions but all too often have been presented with a message saying the are not taking anymore questions that day. Whilst I accept there might have to be a cut-off at sometime, I am being presented with the message at 08:30 when the Ask My GP service only opened at 08:00."
• "I need nonverbal communication as well as spoken I struggle to form and absorb words whilst on phone."
• "7 months wait for important surgery to remove cancer from face. Extremely stressful waiting and watching the cancer grow."
• "My husband was told the [ambulance] would be 12 hours wait, he was having stroke [symptoms] even the 111 doc said […].  Over the next 3 days he was [resuscitated] twice. He is a [veteran] he fought for this country and I was a nurse for many yrs."

​​​​However, the picture is not all bad- many people shared comments about the successes they’ve had in partnership with care staff and applauded the hard work of health and social care professionals at a really challenging time.

“…. I would like to thank the health professionals that I have been in contact, I just wish there was more investment and training to ensure that all services were able to function and meet the needs of the residents.”