Young people's health worries in York

Younger residents are worried York's health services are overstretched - and waiting times are too long.

Healthwatch, an independent organisation that listens to people's experiences of healthcare, asked residents aged eight to 25 what they think about services in York.

They praised NHS staff - but said they struggle to get dentist and GP appointments, as well as mental health support.

One young person told researchers: "I would love there to be more cooking / life skills classes in York."

Another said: "They should provide services for those waiting in the queue and give more funding to services so that queues go down quicker and quality is better."

And another response said: "Staff in services need to know individuals on a personal level but they all seem so busy."

The lack of teenage-specific services was also highlighted, with one responder saying: "No teenage services, just adult and kids services, or not always suitable for teenagers for example there isn’t really an in-between of adult wards and paediatric wards."

Youngsters also pointed to a lack of appointments for services - including fitting braces - outside school hours, interpreters not being available for people who do not speak English and worries about being labelled anti-social.

Healthwatch is now calling for more services to be made available in hostels and youth centres - where they can reach young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and those at risk of homelessness.

They are also asking health bosses to look at "creating an emergency dental hub for York, to address the long-standing issues for our population in accessing NHS dentistry".

And for more appointments to be scheduled outside school hours.

The team spent five months speaking to young people about their views - and gathered more than 300 responses.

The results have been shared with the council and the clinical commissioning group.