Local residents across Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire have been getting involved and having their say about how they would like to see their health services change in the future.
‘Transforming Clinical Services’ is a clinically-led public engagement exercise which gives people the chance to have their say on how they would like services to improve across the three counties, in particular planned care, urgent and emergency care, and out of hospital care.
As the exercise passed its halfway point, the health board has heard from local communities, service users, carers and partners to gather their views about how clinical services should change.
Among the recurring themes so far are:
Travelling for care – what type of care would you travel for and how far would you go? Would you travel for surgery if you could have it sooner?
Community and hospital services – What could we provide in one place and what should be separate?
Waiting times – how could we improve these, and would more use of modern technology be a step in the right direction?
Communications – could we be doing it better? How can we improve information on how and when to access specific services?
Discharge – how could we make it easier for you to leave hospital? What would you need to make you feel supported and safe?
Empowerment – what choices do you want to make about your own care? What can we do to help you make these decisions?
Information sharing – how should we handle your medical records? Would it be better if information was shared between different health services?
Carers – Are you a carer who needs more support? What are the reasons for this and how can we help make things better?
Libby Ryan-Davies, Director of Transformation, said: “We’ve now passed the halfway mark in the engagement process around Transforming Clinical Services and I am delighted that people have been taking time to get their voices heard around the big – and the small – clinical issues that really matter to them.
“We’re getting some really thought-provoking feedback and we have been listening to what people, including our own staff, have to say through a number of ways, such as events, meetings and online.
“There are still three weeks left of the engagement period however so we really want to hear from as many people as possible before the consultation closes on 15 September.”
Dr Phil Kloer, Medical Director and Director of Clinical Services Strategy, added: “At the heart of Transforming Clinical Services is one question: ‘How can we design services to meet the future healthcare needs of our local population, and help drive population health improvement in Mid and West Wales.’ We face a range of challenges and recognise that currently services are not as good as we would want them to be. We feel strongly that our residents deserve the best possible care and support to lead healthier lives.”
“We don’t want to assume we know best; we want to listen to our staff, patients and the public to understand what future improvements they want to see and then work together to achieve these over the next few years. This engagement exercise is the first step – we have not made any decisions, we want to hear everyone’s ideas, and to do this we have produced an “issues paper” for people to read and consider as well as a questionnaire to share their feedback. We are also running a series of online sessions to find out what people think.”
For more information about Transforming Clinical Services, including key documents and an online survey, visit http://www.wales.nhs.uk/sitesplus/862/page/92263
