Background
Ruils – independent living worked in partnership with Richmond Council to complete welcome and 6-month visits for guests under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. As part of these visits, there was an opportunity to include additional health related questions which complemented the NHS South West London outreach programme in Richmond.
A Homes for Ukraine Link Worker was employed to undertake the visits which took place between September 2022 and March 2023. They had a unique insight into this project as they were from Ukraine and had been through the scheme as well.
What were people asked?
- Where would you look for information and advice about health issues, such as vaccination, accessing services, an illness. Prompts:
- Websites – which ones?
- NHS, Council, social media – which ones?
- Faith or community groups, online communities – which ones?
- Work colleagues, friends and family, GP, social worker, nurse or health or care professionals.
- Can you tell us about your recent (last six months) experience of local health and/or care services if you have used any e.g., GP, local hospital. It would be good to hear about what worked well for you as well as what could be improved.
- If you could do one thing to improve your health and wellbeing starting tomorrow, what would you do? Prompts:
- Eating habits/nutrition
- Mental health support
- More time with friends and family
- Work life balance
- Alcohol/smoking
- See GP or other health care professional
What did people tell us?
A total of 121 participants participated in the visits.
Of the 119 who provided information on gender, age, and home location within the borough, most participants were female (81%). A higher proportion of female respondents is in keeping with similar exercises with the wider population.
There was a good spread of age ranges within the participants, the greatest representation being under 45 years of age. In similar exercises with the wider population there is a higher response in the older age groups.
Respondents identified their GP and friends and family as the most popular channels for finding out information and advice about health issues.
Next were online sources such as websites and online communities and then work colleagues. Less popular sources where other health professionals, NHS, and council information.
When asked if they could do one thing to improve their health and wellbeing starting tomorrow, respondents identified improving work life balance at just over 41% followed by more time with friends and family at 31% as the top two things they could do. Accessing mental health support and seeing a GP or other health professional were next with alcohol and smoking last.
Experiences of recent local health and care services
The link worker asked guests about their recent experience of local services (within the last six months). Of the 120 responses, the majority (74%) stated that they had no issues or had a good or positive experience of using local services.
Other feedback included:
- “Positive experience after squirrel bite, helped [her] to feel ok and not to worry.”
- “Liked the health check during GP registration.”
- “Had full phone advice was ok.”
There were a couple of positive experiences about receiving a vaccination, but it was not clear about the type of vaccination.
“Very kind people during vaccine, everything was well explained.”
A couple of the guests positively mentioned pharmacy.
However, 24% were not happy with all or part of their experience of local services. The reasons given included a mix of positive and negative responses. Of those who were not happy seventeen stated waiting times as the issue: this included waiting times to get an appointment to see a GP; for the doctor to visit them and for referral to other services e.g., cardiology, physiotherapy, endocrinology, audiology for questions about hearing aids, dermatology, and test results.
Guests shared:
- “Slow, waiting for GP for two months before got a visit/appointment.”
- “Long time waiting for visit, good listening and friendly doctors.”
- “Difficult to speak to the doctor, big queue on the phone line.”
- “Impossible to visit endocrinologist – long-time waiting not happy.”
A couple of responses referenced translation services not being good or available during their appointment.
“Not good attitude because of translation, long time waiting for visit, do not recognise Ukrainian analysis.”
A few guests mentioned the lack of gloves during procedures one being a vaccination.
Others were not satisfied with the diagnosis and/or attitude of the clinician they saw.
“Visit was not very helpful, after taking blood for testing, the arm swollen. Doctor commented that she’s unlikely to die.”
“Not enough attention, no one listens.”
“I had a tonsillitis and 3 GPs failed to diagnose it properly and prescribe the medicine.”
Guests did not provide the name of the GP practices/hospitals referred to in their responses.
What did we learn?
Including health questions in the six-month visits for guests under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme has enabled us to reach members of the community who may not routinely engage with us.
The insight gathered from this exercise demonstrates that overall, this community’s experience of local services is in line with that of the wider population. Having translation and interpreter services available would improve the experience of services for this community like other communities where English is not their first language.
To ensure that we can capture more detailed insight about services in the future it would be helpful to provide the trusted organisation asking the questions with a conversation guide. This would provide the interviewer with prompts and follow up questions they could use to capture more information about the participants experience of a particular service.