Homelessness and access to health services in Worcestershire
Report - 6 January 2015
Healthwatch Worcestershire is undertaking a long term piece of work to find out the views of people who are homeless about health and social care services.
Community pharmacies are often the first point of contact for people seeking help with minor ailments. They provide vital services like the new “Pharmacy First” scheme, which allows pharmacists to prescribe certain medicines without a GP visit. We wanted to understand how accessible pharmacy services are, how aware people are of the range of services that pharmacy provides, and any barriers they face. We surveyed 555 people across Worcestershire, including workshops for 55 members of SpeakEasy N.O.W., a learning disability charity, to gather people’s experiences of pharmacy services.
We spoke with 55 people with vision impairment and also representative organisations: Sight Concern Worcestershire, Macular Society and Worcestershire Sight Loss Council about their experience of NHS and social care services.