News

Last chance………..

last chance to have your say

This article was published on Thursday, 12th April, 2012 at 3:10 pm . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Quiz the experts about The ‘Better Healthcare in Bucks’ Programme

This consultation will lead to changes in some health services in Buckinghamshire

The Buckinghamshire LINk invites you to its Question Time event.

  • Find out more about the consultation
  • Hear the proposals and give your views
  • Help shape the future of healthcare in Buckinghamshire.

Monday 5th March 2012 – 1pm – 3pm

Little Chalfont Village Hall
Cokes Lane
Little Chalfont
HP8 4UD

Feedback received from this event will be included in the Buckinghamshire LINk formal response to the Better Healthcare in Buckinghamshire consultation

Book your place and submit questions

By phone: 0845 094 9497

By email: hazelwiltshire@hapuk.co.uk

By post: Buckinghamshire LINk, Freepost NAT 12435, 5 Spa Road Melksham, SN12 7BR

It is important for the LINk to reflect the diversity of its community and we welcome everyone regardless of age, disability, gender, race, religion or sexual orientation.

This article was published on Friday, 10th February, 2012 at 4:09 pm . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Proposals to improve and develop Stoke Mandeville and Wycombe Hospital services

People in Buckinghamshire are being urged by two of the county’s leading doctors to find out more about proposals to acute hospital services in Buckinghamshire and then to take advantages of the many ways in which they can respond.

The proposals, which have been developed by hospital doctors, nurses, GPs and other clinicians through the Better Healthcare in Bucks programme, were published on 16 January and are subject to a three month public consultation led by the NHS Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Cluster (the primary care trust or PCT for the area). Buckinghamshire people have until 16 April to respond. Details of the proposals are set out in full and summary consultation reports and can also be found online.

During the three month public consultation period there will be a number of ways in which local people can find out more, ask questions and respond.  These include public meetings in six locations around the county, starting with Marlow on 2 February, road shows in libraries, shopping centres and other venues, a specially developed website with background information and a short film featuring local doctors talking about the proposals, consultation materials and a public survey which is available online and on paper.

The launch of the consultation followed a public involvement and engagement programme which ran from September to October 2011 and which set out to gain views on the aims of Better Healthcare in Bucks through a series of activities including independently led public involvement sessions, meetings with stakeholder organisations and patient groups, information distributed to over 12,000 individuals and organisations and a public and staff survey. The results of the public involvement and engagement programme showed that people were broadly in support of the aims of Better Healthcare in Bucks, although they highlighted that travel and access had to be considered, communication and co-ordination within NHS organisations needed to be improved, and raised concerns about access to GPs.

Dr Graz Luzzi, Medical Director for Bucks Healthcare NHS Trust said:

“We want to ensure that most people can be cared for as close to home as possible, which patients say they usually want.  If people need to go to hospital for specialist care in an emergency, we want to ensure that they reach the right place first time and that they are treated by the relevant experts, as we know this will lead to better outcomes for them.  Our proposals are based on putting this principle into practice.  There is a wish on the part of local doctors and their clinical colleagues to be working in services which are of a high quality and safe, and which have a long term future. I hope that people take the time to consider what we are doing, read the proposals and give us their support.”

Dr Geoff Payne, Medical Director for the NHS Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Cluster said: “I realise that people often have strong loyalties to their local health services, and are sceptical about change.  However, healthcare advances all of the time and we need to take advantage of these developments if we want a 21st century NHS in Buckinghamshire.  We also want to ensure that both Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville Hospitals have healthy futures, providing both general and specialist care for people in the county.  We hope that as many local people as possible attend our events, read our materials and respond to our questions.  We are also keen to hear from community and patient groups who would be prepared to invite us to their meetings.  We would like to see as many people as possible join in our consultation – we have a common interest in all wanting the best possible health care for local people.”

This article was published on Monday, 30th January, 2012 at 10:17 am . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Better healthcare in Bucks: tell us what you think

A public consultation was launched today (16 January) on proposals to develop health services in Buckinghamshire.  The proposals have been developed through the Better Healthcare in Bucks programme by hospital doctors, GPs, nurses and other clinical colleagues. They are aimed at ensuring that local people can continue to have access to high quality, safe and accessible services which offer a good patient experience, make the most of developments in healthcare and meet future challenges. Between now and April 16, patients and the public will have an opportunity to contribute views and ideas on the proposals and this feedback will be considered in detail before any changes go ahead.

The proposals recommend making changes to

  • emergency care
  • general medical inpatient care, including gastroenterology, diabetes, respiratory and medicine for older people services
  • elderly care
  • breast care
  • specialist ‘networked’ vascular services.

Better Healthcare in Bucks set out to ensure that:

  • comprehensive and expanded community services are available to support more patients closer to, or within, their own homes where possible
  • a full range of general acute services (such as outpatient clinics, diagnostic testing and day case procedures) continue to be provided from Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville hospitals
  • all specialist acute services are provided from dedicated centres within either Stoke Mandeville or Wycombe Hospital, to enable patients to access expert staff and facilities when they really need it.

The proposals set out to:

  • refocus the emergency medical services at Wycombe Hospital, run by GPs and emergency nurse practitioners providing diagnosis, advice and treatment to people with minor injuries or illnesses, supported by the A&E departments at Stoke Mandeville and Wexham Park hospitals
  • centralise specialist inpatient care for emergency medicine, respiratory, gastroenterology, medicine for older people and diabetes at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, complemented by the specialist stroke and cardiac services based at Wycombe Hospital
  • centralise and create a specialist breast care centre at Wycombe Hospital, to provide initial assessment and outpatients for people with breast problems.

The following new services are also proposed:

  • day assessment unit for older people at Wycombe Hospital to allow them to be cared for without overnight admission to hospital
  • step-down ward for elderly and medical patients at Wycombe Hospital – who still require 24 hour hospital care but with less specialist input
  • telephone and email advice service for GPs and ambulance crews to help them better support patients out of hospital
  • urgent next-day outpatient appointments to help patients avoid hospital admission
  • full specialist diagnostic support for GPs to help them better manage patients in the community or at home.

If the proposed changes take place, the vast majority of people would continue to go to the same hospital as now. And for those who may need to go elsewhere for their care, they will have an improved patient experience, with better outcomes. 

The launch of the consultation follows a programme of involvement and engagement events in September and October 2011.  During these events, people told us that they have confidence in health services which are provided in the community  or at home and are prepared to travel to get specialist hospital care with better results. At the same time, people also commented that they had concerns about travel and transport and wanted to see more information about NHS services and better co-ordination between different parts of the NHS.  People also commented that patients should not go to A&E for minor injuries and illnesses and that more use should be made of community based services such as pharmacies and GP surgeries.  The comments and feedback given during the engagement phase helped doctors and other clinicians to shape the proposals announced today.

Dr Graz Luzzi, Medical Director for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, said:

“These proposals are all aimed at providing as much care as possible locally for the majority of people, while developing specialist care with high quality outcomes for the small number of patients who need these services. Our engagement and involvement process demonstrated that people understand and support these principles – they want care closer to home, when this is appropriate, and understand why they might need to travel further for specialist care.  We hope that people will look at our proposals and have confidence in what we are suggesting.  They have been developed by doctors and their clinical colleagues on the basis that they will give patients the best experience and the best results, now and in the future.”

Dr Geoff Payne, Medical Director for NHS Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Cluster said:

“During our consultation phase, we will work hard to reach as many individuals and organisations as possible, to discuss our proposals and hear what people think.  There are some very committed individuals in our local communities who will want reassurance that what we are suggesting is best for local patients. We need to listen and take account of their views. We hope that they will continue to stay involved so that we can have open and honest conversations about what we want to change and why. At the end of the day, we all have a common purpose – to ensure high quality, patient-centred, accessible, safe and sustainable services for people in Buckinghamshire.”

This article was published on Friday, 13th January, 2012 at 4:02 pm . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Bucks people tell us what they think

People have confidence in health services which are provided in the community or at home and are prepared to travel to get specialist hospital care with better results, according to a report published today by NHS organisations in Buckinghamshire, as part of the Better Healthcare in Bucks programme. At the same time, people also commented that they had concerns about travel and transport and wanted to see more information about NHS services and better co-ordination between different parts of the NHS. They also expressed concerns about access to GP appointments.

Better Healthcare in Bucks is a programme run jointly by NHS organisations in the county, with the aim of developing health services which are high quality, accessible, sustainable and offer a good patient experience. The work streams, which are led by doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, are focusing particularly on ensuring that all the hospitals in the county can be developed and sustained and can continue to play a role in the local NHS.

The report published today covers the engagement and involvement phase of the ‘Better Healthcare in Bucks’ programme during which the NHS:

  • Sent information to and invited responses from over 12,000 individuals and organisations
  • Ran five involvement events and one feedback event in different locations around the county, attended by over 200 people. These were led by independent market research experts Opinion Leader, and a separate more detailed report on them is available separately.
  • Carried out staff and public surveys. 590 members of staff and 370 members of the public responded to these surveys.
  • Gave presentations to and had discussions with a wide range of local organisations throughout the county.
  • Held discussions with Members of Parliament and representatives of local government, including Buckinghamshire County Council Cabinet and the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee.
  • Organised two ‘clinical summits’, bringing together GPs and hospital doctors to discuss how services should develop.

People also commented that:

  • People should not go to A&E for minor injuries and illnesses and that more use should be made of community based services such as pharmacies and GP surgeries. People commented, however, that better information needs to be available on where to go for what.
  • They agreed that doing more to help people manage their health conditions would help prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital.

These views and comments are being taken into account by the doctors, nurses and other health professionals who are developing proposals for change and a formal public consultation will follow in the New Year.

In addition, as a direct result of these responses, the NHS is organising a ‘transport summit’ in January and a ‘patient information and communications’ summit later in the Spring. These will be an opportunity to bring together NHS clinical staff and managers with patients, the public and interested local organisations to explore ways of making improvements.

Dr Graz Luzzi, Medical Director for Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, said:

“Because of advances in medicine we are now able to provide far more support for people in the community and at home and when people do have to go to hospital, it is for far shorter periods. While people used to spend days or weeks in hospital if they had to have an operation, these days, day surgery is the norm

At the same time, some acute hospital services are becoming more specialist and are being organised into fewer, bigger centres, offering patients excellent care and better results. Obviously we can’t have everything everywhere, and the small number of patients who need specialist care will sometimes have to travel further for it. Our work shows that local people understand this and are willing to travel for high quality care.

During our consultation phase, which we will launch after Christmas, we will work hard to make contact with as many people and organisations as possible, to explain the background, set out our proposals and to gather views which we will take into account. While we had a good response during our engagement and involvement phase, we know we need to work harder to reach even more people during our consultation.”

Dr Geoff Payne, Medical Director for NHS Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Cluster said:

“While my medical and nursing colleagues have been developing proposals to improve hospital services, we wanted to ask patients, partners and the public about what mattered to them. I had not expected such consistent views on the need for better information and sign-posting for patients and better co- ordination between NHS organisations. This is something we need to fix. Our two summits next year will be an opportunity to explore these issues with people who use our services and to come up with some imaginative new ideas”.

This article was published on Thursday, 1st December, 2011 at 1:06 pm . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.