Local people are being asked to give their views about proposals that could see major changes to acute hospital and community care services across Dorset.
A three month public consultation on changes proposed in Dorset’s Clinical Services Review (CSR) will start on 1 December 2016 and run until 28 February 2017.
If agreed, the changes will help Dorset to deliver its forward-looking five year plan for improving health and care services, which are published in the local Sustainability and Transformation Plan.
The Clinical Services Review was launched in response to major challenges which health and care face both in Dorset and across the rest of the country. These include:
· a growing population with more people living longer
· an increasing demand on services
· workforce shortages that will be difficult to fill
· variations in the quality of care
· a potential funding gap of at least £158m per year by 2020
Making the changes proposed in the CSR would mean high quality services would continue in Dorset for the future and more lives could be saved.
During the consultation, people will be asked for their views on proposals which have been developed by local doctors and health professionals, and representative groups of patients and the public.
These include changes to the larger hospitals in the county and bringing more care closer to home through the development of community services including new hubs.
Over the coming weeks there will be lots of opportunities to get involved and have a say with events being planned, thousands of consultation documents being available at venues throughout the county – including GP practices and hospitals – and the opportunity to complete the questionnaire online.
A list of where copies can be picked up from will be available via www.dorsetsvision.nhs.uk from 1 December.
An interactive online map will show what the proposals mean for local healthcare along with details of local public events where copies of the consultation document – Improving Dorset’s Healthcare – are available.
Anyone who doesn’t have access to the internet can find out where to pick up a copy of the consultation document and questionnaire by calling 01202 541946.
Throughout the consultation the latest updates will be given out via social media channels twitter.com/DorsetCCG and Facebook.com/NHSDorsetCCG.
Chair of NHS Dorset CCG Dr Forbes Watson said “We are delighted to be able to announce the start of the consultation.
Whether you agree with the proposals or not we want to hear from you. You can also help by picking up a copy of the consultation document and questionnaire and giving it to friends or family members. It is important that as many people have their say as possible.
We recognise that there will be a great deal of interest in these proposals. We would like to reassure people that their views will be listened to and nothing will be decided until we have gathered the opinions of local people and final proposals have been agreed by the CCG Governing Body.
These proposals are the outcome of collective work from local clinicians who are experts in their area of work.
At the start of the review they were tasked with designing Dorset’s future healthcare so it could continue to deliver the high standard of care local people are used to receiving both now and in the future. I would like to thank the hundreds of members of the public, local doctors and NHS staff who have all been working extremely hard since the launch of the review to get to this stage The Clinical Services Review is also an important part of delivering the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) for Dorset – something that all CCGs across the country have been asked to produce”.
