What you told us: October 2023
Health and social care feedback Northumberland October 2023
This month the biggest issue, apart from difficulties getting an appointment at GP practices, has been poor communication by services. This is around prescriptions in particular, and the communication between patient, GP practice and pharmacy. There have also been communication issues with other services either not communicating with the patient or with each other, which has adversely affected the patient.
What did we get up to?
October was a busy month with an increased number of one-off sessions and events on top of our regular Here to Hear events. We were at Choppington Disability Group’s AGM, Blyth Wellbeing event, Silver Sunday and Mental Health Celebration event (also in Blyth), and Alnwick Garden’s Wellness event, all of which have been well attended and have enabled us to speak to many more people than usual.
Our AGM and listening event at East Bedlington Community Centre was well-attended and we received lots of positive feedback from guests.
This month’s online session on self-harm from Battle Scars was very popular, with our highest ever attendance since we began these sessions.
We ran an online campaign asking people to tell us what they think about their local pharmacy which generated a lot of feedback, almost exclusively positive, with many glowing references to Allendale
Pharmacy. This meant that for the first time since we started the monthly reports in July 2022, we received more positive feedback than negative.