What was the brief?
The project brief was to gather the views of local residents around the development of a community health bus service for the city, on behalf of Newcastle GP Services (NGPS) and Newcastle University’s School of Pharmacy.
What did we do?
The service aimed to ensure local people have access to high-quality healthcare in their communities. Ahead of the bus commencement, they were keen to understand what people would want from it, to help inform its scope.
An online and paper-based survey was carried out with 97 people sharing their views. We analysed the feedback and our report was submitted in August 2024.
What did we find?
There was good support for the bus with over two-thirds of respondents stating they would personally use it. They liked that it would be easy to access in terms of a drop-in service and being local to them. They also liked that it offered an additional service to their GP practice which was difficult to access for some. Those who would not use the bus felt it was a duplication of services available at their GP practice or were uncertain of what the service was offering.
“I suffer with agoraphobia and can’t always get to GP so this would be helpful if it was close to me.”
“Problems obtaining appointments at local doctors so this may be an alternative.”
Strong support for using Pharmacy students
Healthcare on the bus will be delivered by Newcastle University pharmacy students, under the supervision of a nurse, so they can gain experience and training. There was strong support for this. Respondents liked that it gave students an opportunity for ‘hands-on’ patient experience which would complement their theoretical learning and felt confident in the service knowing that they were being supervised. A minority were unhappy, wishing instead to see a qualified health professional, others lacked confidence in the supervision process.
Service scope explored
Respondents were asked what they would use the service for and when and where it should operate.
Other potential future services were also considered with interest in adult vaccinations, NHS health checks and ECGs in particular. Respondents suggested that the bus could also offer mental health support.
The majority of respondents would be happy to use the service across weekdays and at the weekend during the day. There was less support for a weekend evening service.
Barriers and concerns
Two-fifths of people had concerns that the service might be too far away for them to travel to and over one-third of people preferred to visit their GP. How accessible the service would be was also a concern in terms of physically accessing the bus and language barriers.
Just over one sixth of respondents had concerns with the proposed service with most suggesting that it was being used to plug gaps in GP services, offering a watered down service. Some felt that the bus might not offer the same professional standards as other NHS services and felt that there may be a lack of dignity in accessing a bus.
What was the impact?
We recommended to make it easier for people to use the service, it needs to be:
- available across a wide range of areas
- be well publicised
- be accessible to disabled people and
- be accessible to those whose first language is not English.
Our report was very well received and a community service has now been established. We have already seen the bus out and about!
