Healthcare on the Doorstep?

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Justine Greening launches Putney-wide survey

Putney resident and Conservative parliamentary candidate Justine Greening has launched a Putney-wide survey to find out about Putney residents’ experience of healthcare locally and to find out what they think of healthcare services on offer.

Justine said:

"As a local NHS user in Putney, I have my own experience to draw upon, but I’m interested to get a much broader perspective of what people in Putney, Southfields and Roehampton actually think about the healthcare available to them on their doorstep.

I’m asking other residents to tell me what they think about healthcare locally. When you see the survey drop through your letterbox, do fill it in. It shouldn’t take more than 5 to10 minutes but will provide vital information to help improve healthcare efforts."

Ms Greening said that the survey was designed to get a balanced view of healthcare provision by asking for good aswell as bad experiences":

"The best feedback from people is always when they speak for themselves and I look forward to hearing what people have to say about their experience and views of health locally. Other residents often write to me with particular issues., for example, problems in registering with a GP, or in using hospital-provided transport to reach appointments. This survey will give us a chance to see whether those issues are just one-offs, related to specific area, or represent bigger problems across the constituency which need to be urgently sorted out."

Justine, who has already met with Wandsworth Primary Care Trust chair Melba Wilson to discuss the survey, will be sharing the results with the PCT once they have been fully analysed later in the year:

"I very much hope that I can work with Wandsworth Primary Care Trust to use these results and see some real improvements which will benefit Putney residents."

Ms Greening said that she hoped to gain a much better understanding of how well Putney’s diverse needs are actually being met and, crucially, where residents are most keen to see improvements.

Ms Greening pointed to the diversity of the Putney constituency shown by the recently published 2001 census figures and its impact on healthcare needs locally.

"The recent 2001 census figures showed just how diverse the population is in the Putney constituency. We have a high degree of younger, sub 35 population – much higher than the national average, but we also have many older people who have special healthcare needs of their own. That means the breadth of healthcare needs in this area is significantly wider than in other parts of the country. The survey results will certainly be interesting to see whether they support the census data indication of broader healthcare needs locally."

September 3, 2004