Many thanks for everyone who completed my ‘Summer Health Survey’ this summer and a particular thank you to the people who took the time to speak to me on their doorstep.

I visited all 17 wards within my constituency, in order to hear as wide a range of constituents’ views as possible on local people’s experiences of local health services in order to highlight outstanding practice and identify issues to inform my work as the Member of Parliament. The survey, which was completed by over 600 people, has helped me better understand local people’s views and experiences.

I promised I would publish the results after I had completed the survey, here they are:

When asked how easy it is to access a GP appointment 51% said that it was easy or acceptable with 49% saying it was difficult or unacceptably hard.

However, when it came to rating their surgery, 71% said it was poor and average being able to get an appointment with their GP while 29% rated their practice as good and excellent at getting an appointment with their GP. When it comes to the quality of care provided by their GP surgery, 70% said it was excellent or good and 74% said that the nursing services at their surgery was good and excellent.

When it comes to being able to access an NHS dentist 25% of the people who responded said that they have had trouble registering with an NHS dentist.

When asked how long they or a family member had to wait in A&E in the last 12 months before being seen by a doctor 16% said they waited less than 2 hours, 20% waited 2 – 4 hours, 14% waited 4-6 hours with 10% waiting over 6 hours.

Out of the people who responded about how long they have waited for surgery, 4 % said they had so far waited less than a month, 8% had been waiting 1-3 months, 7% had been waiting 3-6 months, 10% had been waiting over 6 months and 10% had been waiting over year. This means that 87 respondents had been waiting over 6 months, with 44 of those waiting for over a year.

When it comes to mental health services, I asked about waiting times, access to local services and the quality of the care received. 42% said access to local service were poor or average and 20% said it was good or excellent. 66% said waiting times were poor or average with 17% saying they were good or excellent and 37% said that the care received was poor or average with 26% saying the care received was good or excellent.

80% of respondents believe that the NHS has got worse over the last 56 years, 17% say it has stayed the same with 3% saying it has improved.

Finally, 91% of respondents say that they trust the Labour Party the most with the NHS while 9% say they trust the Conservative Party the most with the NHS.