New report looks at young people’s experiences of patient centred primary care

Healthwatch Birmingham has published our latest report – Young people’s perception of patient centred care primary care in Birmingham. The report looks into the level of patient centred care experienced by young people in accessing primary care in the city.
Staff and volunteers asked over 300 young people, aged between 16 and 25, about their experiences of general practice (GP) and their use of health services.
This is the first time Healthwatch Birmingham has been able to listen to the real views of young people from every district of the city and provides an insight into the way services need to be improved to meet their needs.
The full report can be found at: https://healthwatchbirmingham.co.uk/about-us/reports/
Key findings include:

• Patient centred care experienced by young people in Birmingham is not consistent or good enough.
• Young people face avoidable barriers to accessing GP services.
• Some young people report using other health services when they have a concern, as oppose to going to a GP.

Healthwatch Birmingham made a number of recommendations to Birmingham South Central, Birmingham CrossCity and Sandwell and West Birmingham clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) about the improvement of patient centred care for young people. Their responses are included in the full report.
We will be working with all three CCGs to help shape and influence service improvement for the citizens of Birmingham and understand their progress against our recommendations to ensure quality patient and public involvement in commissioning and service decision making.