By Gillian Keniston-Goble, Healthwatch Somerset Manager
Healthwatch Somerset staff and volunteers took to the road during May, visiting community locations to talk to people in 12 of the 13 Primary Care Network areas across the county.
The aim of our roadshow was to tell people about Healthwatch Somerset and the service we offer, and we were also carrying out a survey to find out about people’s experiences of using GP websites to access information.
We were joined on the roadshow by staff from the Somerset’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Group, who were asking the public about communications around the new Community Pharmacy Service in Somerset.
We launched the roadshow in Taunton on Monday 9 May, with a visit from the Mayor of Taunton, Cllr Sue Lees. She kindly came along to meet staff and talk to the Chair of our Board Judith Goodchild.
We wanted to reach out and speak to as many people as possible over the two weeks of the roadshow. We visited a variety of venues, including community hospitals, medical centres, supermarkets, street markets, garden centres and town centres; in a variety of locations across the county including Minehead, Bridgwater, Burnham-on-Sea, Wellington, Shepton mallet, Cheddar, Chard, Yeovil, Wincanton, Street, Frome and Somerton.
We were incredibly lucky with the weather, mainly dry, a couple of days of lovely sunny days, and a nice breeze on the coast.
We met some wonderful people who shared their experiences with us, so thank you to you to everyone who took the time to come along and have a chat.
We spoke to 363 people across Somerset and 242 people answered our survey about GP websites. We are currently analysing everyone’s feedback and will publish our report later in the summer.