The Primary, Community and Intermediate Care (PCIC) Clinical Board at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board have collaborated with Universities across Cardiff over the last 3 years to support students in accessing appropriate healthcare services whilst residing at their term time address.

Driven by a commitment to improving student wellbeing by raising awareness of the services available, PCIC Clinical Board has been working closely with Cardiff University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and University of South Wales to share information on the Primary Care services available in the community.

The Health Board is dedicated to the continued promotion of its Primary Choice campaign which is aimed at increasing public awareness of services available to the population of Cardiff and Vale and the MDT professionals that facilitate these services. One of the areas of focus of this campaign is educating students about the local services available to them which may differ to those available at home, encouraging students to use services more efficiently and to utilise the most appropriate clinician within the Multi-Disciplinary Team. As part of this campaign, PCIC has:

• Delivered existing Primary Choice leaflets (in English, Arabic & Mandarin) and new 'Register with a GP' posters to private accommodation halls (LUMIS & CPR students).
• Arranged for private accommodation halls to display digital screens in communal areas encouraging students to register with a GP.
• Developed a new sexual health leaflet which was given out to private accommodations, at Freshers events and to the Centre for Student Life.
• Developed social media videos about different DOSH services.
• Updated Padlet (online visual board for sharing information and digital materials) with accurate information and new assets. Shared with University comms teams (to cascade information to students on official internal channels).
• Captured videos with students at Freshers Fairs about accessing healthcare in Cardiff - these videos will be boosted with allocated digital advertising budget.
• Arranged paid-for digital screen & website advertising with Cardiff University Students Union encouraging students to register with a GP.
• Digital social media advertising campaign which targets students in Cardiff based off age, location and interests.
• Primary Care Team attended Freshers events to raise awareness of Primary Care services and encourage GP registration.

This year, the Primary Care Team supported over 1,186 students with the GP registration process and raised further awareness of the services available in community pharmacies such as the common ailment service, Pharmacy Independent Prescriber, contraception service and emergency medication supply. They also promoted access to dental and optometry services available in the community. 127 students accessed practice websites using the QR codes specifically designed for the Freshers events with spikes in visits on the dates the Freshers events took place. The ‘Register with a GP webpage’ was also visited a total of 735 times throughout the month of September.

The Health Board will continue working with universities and using its social media channels to guide students towards the most appropriate healthcare service first time. You can download our current and upcoming resources via this link - https://padlet.com/intranews/primary-choice-students-bdpgni4sllznn35s.