Health Board’s Shaping our Future Clinical Services Engagement Outcomes
Thank you to everyone who took the opportunity to participate in the Health Board’s Shaping Our Future Clinical Services public engagement which ran for 7 weeks in March/April 2021. We are grateful for the constructive conversations and rich feedback that were facilitated through the programme.
· 388 responses received (351 online survey, 5 via email and 31 on social media)
· 44 people attended online virtual public meetings hosted by the South Glamorgan Community Health Council
What we learned…
92% of respondents strongly agreed or agreed that there is a need to transform some of our clinical services and 74% strongly agree or agree with the principles to transforming those clinical services.
A number of common themes emerged from feedback:
• Right care, right place, right time
• Communication
• Digital transformation and technology
• Quality
• Organisation and integration of services
• Physical access issues
• Support for the Home First/Care closer to home concept
• Workforce
• Comments on specific services
• Comments about primary care
The engagement has highlighted that people recognise the need to transform our clinical services and broadly support the underpinning principles for transformation. Ensuring that people have easy and timely access to the right clinician, who provides the right care and treatment, is fundamental to what people want and expect from their NHS - care that provides the right outcome for them as individuals. Transformation must have quality of care at its centre. Communication in plain language around what any changes are, how to access services and talk to clinicians is essential, as is communication between professionals in different parts of the care system.
There is much support for increasing the use of digital technology in service provision, with people citing good experience of accessing primary and secondary care services online during the pandemic. However, this is tempered with concern about those who may be digitally excluded and an emphasis on the need for alternatives being made available for those who are unable to access or use technology and the importance of continued opportunities for face-to-face consultations.
The engagement has also reinforced that transformation must develop around whole patient pathways that place the patient’s wellbeing at the heart of what we are seeking to achieve, and that build greater integration and join-up of services within the NHS and with partner services. Comments about the future delivery of services in hospital and in the community, demonstrated the importance of enabling access to our facilities with a robust transport infrastructure and designing new buildings to be fully accessible to all.
Having a workforce with the capacity and training to deliver our transformation ambitions and who have buy-in to the plans is crucial to success, as is taking care of our staff. Clinicians from across different specialties are keen to get involved in shaping the programme and to share their ideas for how services could work differently in the future.
You can see the full Public Engagement Report which includes the findings and Health Board responses here.
The outcome…
The Cardiff and Vale UHB Board and South Glamorgan Community Health Council have reviewed the findings of the engagement independently and supported the case to move forward to the next stages of the programme, learning from the rich feedback and drawing it into the next phase of work.
What next?
Whilst the first phase of Shaping Our Future Clinical Services sought feedback on the Health Board’s broader vision for clinical redesign, the next phase of engagement and/or consultation will focus on specific pathways and how they can be enhanced.