Multilingual videos help explain social distancing and Covid support to Crawley patients

The videos – in Urdu, Tamil, Arabic and Gujarati – make up part of the work being carried out by the Crawley Care Collaborative Primary Care Network to ensure Black and Minority Ethnic (BAME) patients receive the advice and support needed during the pandemic.

The network is made up of the Bridge Medical Centre, Langley Corner Surgery, Leacroft Medical Practice and Southgate Medical Group.

Tracy Olckers, a social prescriber link worker for the network, said the teams was ‘very conscious of the impact Covid-19 is having on all of our patients but particularly on our Black and Minority Ethnic patients’.

As well as the videos, Tracy said letters had been sent to vulnerable BAME patients with underlying health conditions, inviting them to a health review and advising them what to do should they test positive for the virus.

On top of that, a socially distanced team of teenagers from the Crawley Town Community Foundation spent hours putting together information packs for patients.

As well as explaining the importance of attending regular health checks and vaccination appointments, the packs contain a bundle of information covering wellbeing, debt and finance, housing issues, mental health and employment.

They also include leaflets for organisations such as Carers Support, Relate Counselling, Citizens Advice, and the Royal Voluntary Service.

Tracy said the network was looking for members of the BAME community to volunteer to sit on the Patient Participation Groups for each surgery.

She added: “This group consists of registered patients whose views and opinions can help us to deliver a service more centred around what our patients want.”

Patients are asked to contact their surgery to find out about the information packs and the Patient Participation Group.

The videos can be found at leacroft.co.uk/practice-information/covid-information-videos