Senior Engagement Officer Emmy supported a member of the MSK physiotherapy team within Ormskirk hospital to understand residents' experience of using the physiotherapy service in and around the Skelmersdale area. The team wanted to understand if residents knew about their team, if they knew about the self-refer programme, what to do if they had aches and pains but also wanted to see if they could access the support provided.
A focus group session was established in partnership with Healthwatch Lancashire and the Signpost Café within the ecumenical centre. This session was held to establish what the residents knew, how they could refer themselves in, if they had used the service already, how it was, how it could be improved and also how do they get the word out there about the service.
Below are examples of conversations that were spoken about on the day of the focus group.
- Doing a self-referral can be hard, as you don’t know how much pain you need to be in to self-refer.
- Patients mentioned that education around self-referral would be beneficial, as you don’t always know about it or understand what it means.
- The time of the appointment could be a problem as the bus pass only works during certain times. Patients who are on a bus pass were concerned about how they would reach appointments at certain times due to the bus pass only working at certain times of the day.
- Distance is a big concern as it’s quite far to attend, especially when you're in pain. Localised support would be very beneficial for people in Skelmersdale.
- Having something more localised would be beneficial for residents. Having someone central ready to support and help with referrals, advice, and support. Emails are a big barrier to use and wouldn’t work; we would prefer a text or phone call.
- Wait times can be a big barrier to sending a referral form or having your first appointment. Patients think they could be waiting for several months before they can be given help and support. – This isn’t the case for this service, as they are seen very quickly after sending in the referral form. This was just highlighted by people on the day, and they were very happy with this outcome.
- Having that point of contact for patients to ask for support/advice. I struggle with online and prefer to speak to someone. – This service commits to maintain multiple access routes via phone, online and website.
- Patient awareness that they can refer after they’ve been through the service. patient follow up after discharge would be good. A lot of patients didn’t know they could refer back into the service if they had already been through it.
- Utilise partnerships with GPs, health centres, and urgent treatment centres to get the word out there.
- Advertise the service out in local community centres, leisure centres and GP practices.
Healthwatch Lancashire would like to take the opportunity to thank the MSK physiotherapy team for bringing me in to support with this very important piece of work. It was very interesting to hear the views of the public around Skelmersdale and hear their ideas of how to improve the service moving forward, but also where to advertise the service so more people are aware of how they can be involved. Healthwatch Lancashire enjoys collaborating with various agencies to ensure the voice of the public is heard and understood.