What did people in Gravesend tell us?

Summary

39 people from Gravesham Borough Council shared their stories with Healthwatch with the majority talking about GP services.  

16 people spoke about struggling to get an appointment with their GP. One person told us,

“If I need to see the GP, I have to queue outside the surgery at 7am in the dark. My 82 year old Mum has to do the same. By 7:30am there are 40 other people waiting. You can never get through on the phone so you have to queue. By 8am all the appointments are gone.”

Talking about the visit, Steve Inett said,

“We don’t hear enough from Gravesham residents, so we visited the Council to encourage people to tell us their stories.  We use peoples’ experiences of health and social care services to try and improve services so the more we hear, the more we can do.”

“We had an excellent day talking with Council staff”, he continued.

“We heard about a whole range of issues that we are now able to work on. We are already talking with decision makers about the struggles people have to get a GP appointment.  Hopefully more local people will contact us so we can make a difference in Gravesham.”