Access to GPs Work Group
This group was set up in response to issues submitted to the LINk around access to primary care services such as GPs and dentists in the borough.
It looks at whether all sections of Westminster’s community are aware of and able to access, the services they are entitled to.
LINK Steering Group member Eddie Chan is the lead for this group. Eddie helps run the Chinese National Healthy Living Centre in Soho, which promotes healthy living and provides access to health services for the Chinese community in the UK.
The Centre recently won an award at the NHS London regional NHS Health and Social Care Awards 2010 in the ‘Success in Partnership Working’ category. A Hepatitis B screening, vaccination and treatment service run jointly between the Chinese National Healthy Living Centre and Chelsea and Westminster NHS Foundation Trust won and will be shortlisted for the National Awards.
Current Work Plan
The work plan for this group's work can be read here
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Mystery Shopping Project 
A group of members from Westminster LINk recently completed a telephone "mystery shopping" exercise to investigate concerns around access to GPs services in our area.
Our trained LINk volunteers contacted 32 GP practices to test how well they respond to patients wanting to register with a variety of health needs and from a variety of cultural backgrounds.
The "shopping" took place during October 2010 and the results were collected. The final report and recommendations were approved by the LINk’s Steering Group and sent to NHS Westminster for response.
We submitted our report and recommendations to NHS Westminster in December 2010.
You can read an executive summary here.
NHS Westminster sent us its initial response.
The LINk sent follow up questions.
NHS Westminster has now sent an updated response which addresses concerns raised by the LINk.
For more information, or if you would like to join this work group, please contact:
Steven Towndrow
Westminster LINk
VAW, 37 Chapel St
London, NW1 5DP
020 7535 0492