Cambridgeshire Health Booklet - NHS Cumbria

Primary Care
Many individuals from Gypsy and Travelling
communities may not feel comfortable going
to a doctor’s surgery, hospital, office or other
place of authority and may be accompanied by
at least one family member. This can be due to
a number of reasons:
. bad experiences in the past
. the expectation that they will be
treated badly
. insecurity or lack of confidence
. lack of literacy.
Gypsy and Traveller women may prefer to
have a female doctor, particularly as there are
cultural issues which are relevant if issues such
as sexual health - for example smear tests,
breast health, pregnancy, and symptoms of the
menopause - are to be discussed. (See Family
Health Care, pg. 10.)
In primary care a detailed oral
explanation of how to take any
prescribed medication would be
useful, as there may well be
literacy issues in reading instructions.
A recent study by Patrice van Cleemput on
access to and experiences of primary care
for Gypsies and Travellers includes some
useful information about requirements for
culturally safe services.
A copy of the report is available to
download from the Ormiston website at
www.ormiston.org or the Cambridgeshire
Primary Care Trust website at
www.cambridgeshirepct.nhs.uk
Markie’s Story
Markie* is a young man who suffers from
depression and anxiety. He was prescribed
night time medication to help him sleep and
to reduce his anxiety. He was told to take
three 10mg tablets every night. His Mum
looked after the tablets and made sure he
took them. Markie’s literacy is not good and
neither is his Mum’s, and they made sure
the people at the surgery were aware of
this. Markie was improving gradually but
then started to feel worse for no real
reason. He felt tired, lethargic and believed
his medication wasn’t helping him. He told
the people treating him and they suggested
he take an extra dose of his mood stabilising
medication during the day to see if that
helped.
The Ormiston Travellers Initiative Advocacy
Service supported Markie to tell the
consultant he wasn’t happy and to ask
for his medication to be reviewed. The
consultant contacted the surgery and
went through the details of what was being
dispensed. It was found that the night time
medication had been changed and the dose
of each of the tablets was now 30mg.
Markie and his Mum had not been told,
couldn’t read the packaging and Markie had
been taking three times his prescribed dose
at night. In addition he had taken an extra
one in the daytime as he had confused the
night time tablets with the mood stabilising
tablets, due to them being supplied in
blister packs without their branded packets.
* Names have been changed to protect identity
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