Willow Wong, VP Welfare and Diversity, details the next steps that will be taken to ensure that all students at Royal Holloway receive high-quality and accessible health care.
University is a strange and wonderful place with people from all over the world forming our tight-knit campus community. Although our vibrant campus life makes studying at Royal Holloway a unique experience, it also makes catching viruses and bacteria much easier. This is why Clarence Medical Centre has a satellite branch at Royal Holloway, providing the necessary health care services to students living on campus.
Over a month ago, an online petition was created by a current student calling for improvements to the health centre on campus. The petition has since gained over 1800 signatures, with over 100 individual testimonies showing that the service provided by the health centre to our students can, and should be improved.
As Vice President, Welfare and Diversity, I have since reached out to the student who created the online petition to discuss the concerns of our student body. It’s important to note that the healthcare needs of our students are highly valued by the Students’ Union. We recognise that there is increasing demand for a healthcare service that is both high-quality and accessible to students living and studying on campus.
This is the reason I have started working with Professor Bob O’Keefe, the Vice-Principal of the College, to look into how the health centre can be improved to meet the existing demands of our students. This week, we met with the senior doctors at the health centre to discuss how it is currently operating and explored areas of improvements.
What happens next?
Next week, I will be joined by Clem Jones, our Vice President, Education, to attend the first Health Centre Users Group meeting where we will develop action plans to help the health centre improve its services, as well as for students to better understand how the health centre operates as an NHS-funded clinic.
Leading up to our meeting with the Health Centre Users Group, feel free to contact me with your thoughts and ideas. Whether this means shorter waiting periods for appointments, better customer service from receptionists, online booking systems, greater access to sexual health and mental health services, or upgrading the existing facilities at the health centre. Alternatively, you can drop by the SU to have a chat with me about this!