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Worcestershire NHS
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Events

Focus Groups

About Focus Groups:

We are holding a number of focus groups to give the public and patient representatives the opportunity to take part in the design of the best possible healthcare for county residents that is sustainable for the future.

Patient and public input into the Joint Services Review is very important as we know that the more we listen to patients, the public, professionals and our wider partners, the more sustainable options and future plans will be.

Session 1 took place on 5 April and 11 April and those attending had active discussions with involved clinicians about the priorities and outcomes of the Joint Services Review.

Session 2 took place on 14 and 15 June and a summary of these discussions will be available shortly.

Below is a summary of the discussions held in April:  

Patient and nurse
Patient and nurse
Elderly Care 

Comments on the Objectives

Comments on the Outcomes

What is meant by ‘elderly care’; does this relates to the frail elderly or a more holistic approach?

The focus has to be on the long term, providing holistic services

A whole systems approach is needed which is proactive in preventative care

Any change should address prevention of ill health amongst the elderly

Support people in their homes and communities and refrain from keeping people in hospital if this isn’t actually necessary

The review and any proposals for change should involve the community and voluntary support and services

The review needs to be: integrated, holistic, preventative and relevant support and place

 

“…it’s no good getting people through the system in good time if there’s nowhere for them to go. We’re not asking you to reinvent the wheel; we’re asking you to make a better wheel.”

Women and Children's Services

Comments on the Objectives

Comments on the Outcomes

The review needs to provide a holistic consideration of the women and children’s care, not just from staffing issues, but also show that it includes all relevant factors

The move to a centralised and specialist overnight unit makes a sound business decision, ensuring quality of service

The group accepted the problems caused by the need to use locums due to a shortage of middle grades

The group felt that people are prepared, and expect, to travel further for areas of specific medical support

It was seen that value for money and/or quality is not currently being achieved due to the trust relying on locums

A midwife led unit was considered as an area of service which would improve provision

Quality of service is the most important consideration

“…if it involves an overnight stay but you’re going to get high quality standard of care, then you’d be prepared to travel.”

 Emergency Care

Comments on the Objectives

Comments on the Outcomes

Should the focus be evolution or revolution, is the purpose of the review to improve what is already provided or to take a step back and develop new provision?

The key consideration of centralising services is the time to get to A&E in an emergency and the need to provide 24/7 emergency care in all areas as getting treatment quickly is critical

To what extent are there ‘real options’ available for discussion – have certain decisions been made or would have to be made, reducing the opportunity to influence?

The public needs to know whether or not they need to go to A&E, to be made aware of the different types of service provision

“…is a gold standard service necessarily affordable for everything?... I can see this is the aspiration but is that affordable and is it achievable for everything, and what are the compromises in a silver service, what does the difference look like?”

There is the need to ensure that the A&E resources are utilised effectively and not depleted by dealing with non-relevant cases

 

Run open days and provide information to inform the public about services available and when it is relevant to use services

Planned Care

Comments on the Objectives

Comments on the Outcomes

What is the definition of ‘planned care’?

 

The fact that the move to specialisation and centralisation means being able to provide quality specialist services was seen to be a positive factor

The opportunity for specialist and concentrated functions to be developed would provide higher quality service and potentially reduce the need for patients to go outside the county

What everyone wants, however, is the best service available as close as possible to them

Need to be ensure awareness of which aspects of service provision and development is open to debate and which are not

If ensuring quality of service means centralised units then this is understood but people are strongly conscious regarding the locality of services 

What percentage of the population are we talking about, does planned care include the majority of hospital patients?

“You can’t compromise on quality, that’s the very point of this... you can’t have some of these services locally… we do need to be realistic… we shouldn’t get into an argument about locality versus quality.”

 

Read the full report:

 

A further set of focus group meetings on 16th and 17th May will consider and discuss the emerging options for change.

If you would like to take part in these sessions, please email us at worcsnhsjsr@worcestershire.nhs.uk

 

A personal view, Philip Talbot, Age UK Herefordshire &Worcestershire

Age UK H&W logo
I attended some of the initial Focus Groups and found the briefings from the lead clinicians clear and succinct with explanations of the outline of the terms of reference of the groups and feedback on initial thoughts of the direction clinicians are heading with their thinking.

Whilst all the groups are considering areas which interface with other forums of health and social care in the county, the elderly care group particularly recognises the need to consider issues more holistically.  Early intervention and planned social aftercare will significantly reduce the demand on acute care for the elderly.  In so doing, it will also improve the health of the overall population in Worcestershire.

It seems to me that the key outcomes of the JSR are: 

  • the need for clinicians to come up with appropriate recommendations which achieve the key targets they have set

and,

  • the need for the public to recognise and accept that there has to be a fundamental change in how and where some services are delivered for us to keep the NHS a strong, vibrant, high quality service which we need and expect to keep our communities healthy in Worcestershire.

 

The implications of some of the changes will need to be carefully considered and addressed or they will be ‘doomed to fail’.  There is a logic to good organisation of services.  The British are renowned across the world for this and we need to embrace this element of the work after careful scrutiny to ensure it will deliver against the core objective themes being pursued.

I believe the JSR represents a genuine opportunity to re-shape acute care (and to some extent social and pastoral care) in the communities in Worcestershire and I believe we should actively participate with an open and scrutinising mind to ensure our local services are re-developed so they are fit for purpose for the next ten years and beyond. We need to ensure they deliver high quality standards for the citizens of Worcestershire which we can be proud of.

The over-arching question we need to be able to answer to support the forthcoming proposals is: will these changes ensure we are looked after properly when we are ill?