What are people saying?

Here are a few comments we have received at events, by letter or online:

"People are quite rightly frightened at the thought of long distance travel in an emergency but this must be balanced by the high level of expertise of paramedics in ambulance services. It is important that patients are received at a centre fully staffed and have the expertise for handling such clinical emergencies." Letter July 2012

"Continuous changes in hospital services can be a very positive thing obviously however, such radical reviews, I feel, detract from the focus of on-going review of the current care provision and this is a negative thing as the services currently being provided lose an importance on managers agendas." Questionnaire return July 2012

"The wellbeing of the patients, their carers and families should be of upmost importance...The pressure on the roads with all the travelling, plus the cost, the extra ambulances needed, as they will all be travelling a lot more than they do now." Questionnaire return July 2012

"It seems to create more confusion having the three different facilities: A&E, urgent and minor injuries, we all understand A&E is the place you go for emergencies. It's apparent that many people do not know the difference between acute, chronic and emergency." Focus group June 2012

"There is a need to provide patients with consistency in the staff they see, which is not necessarily possible when using locums. The use of locums also means that costs are not within the control of the trust." Focus group June 2012

"I don’t doubt that there has to be radical changes, I think we’ve missed the opportunity to have evolutionary changes over the last 10 years, but when we did have a major reorganisation some 10 years ago with care in the community, that has not worked satisfactory or economically." Focus group June 2012

"We've got a wonderful opportunity to address the holistic approach to elderly care in Worcestershire, and frankly if we miss it, then the criticism is going to be leveled at this consultation in its failing, it's failed to do what it has the opportunity to do." Focus group, April 2012

"It's no good getting people through the system in good time if there's nowhere for them to go, that's where the huge bottleneck is. We're not asking you to reinvent the wheel; we're asking you to make a better wheel." Focus group, April 2012

"You can't compromise on quality, that's the very point of this. We do have to be realistic, we shouldn't get into an argument about locality versus quality" Focus group, April 2012

"Accessibility is an important component of any service provider, let alone one as vital as emergency health care. North Worcestershire and South Warwickshire have large areas of social deprivation which automatically suggests that emergency health cover should be as readily accessible as possible." Template letter from Save the Alex September 2012

"Bringing all women and children's services into one area would be fantastic and I would very much like to see more things done in a kind of one-stop shop .i.e. see consultant, go for most investigations on the same day where possible. I would like more use to be made of the facilities at weekends also. These are exciting times but it is crucial that any decisions made are the right ones and that patients not money take priority." Email August 2012

"How is the problem to be resolved when clinicians are using valuable working time commuting between hospital sites, when such time could be used actually seeing patients? The concentration of many patients on one site brings inevitable problems - congestion and infection. The obvious plan should be to 'spread the load' by keeping several sites throughout the county." Letter July 2012

"There is an urgent need to increase (and fund) the resources available in the community - Don’t just hope that voluntary organisations will be able to assist." Questionnaire return July 2012

"I am told that Worcester Hospital is very busy. How are they going to cope with more patients?" Questionnaire return July 2012

"Extra services should be available at Kidderminster Hospital - not less. There is room and capacity available to be used to provide these services e.g. more minor operations - more consultant appointments." Questionnaire return July 2012

"I think more emphasis needs to be put on the fact that there are simply not enough doctors to do everything that the trust wants on all sites, rather than just saying we need to save money - which is true- but that the pot of high quality doctors is getting smaller." Focus group June 2012

"Each individual specialty and each individual story is an imperative and that everyone wants the best for themselves and their family, but there is not an infinite pot of money is there?" Focus group June 2012

"I think people would be prepared to travel further for higher quality services. You know that if it involves an overnight stay but that you're going to get high quality standards of care, then you'd be prepared to travel." Focus group, April 2012

"A shift in emphasis is important to understand prevention as opposed to cure... I think it's a lack of prevention that puts pressure on the acute." Focus group, April 2012

"No matter what anyone says about quality of service and giving everyone everything they need, there will always be a line, and to me, the idea of this is that if I need that drug, I want to make sure that the line's been pushed as far up that way as possible, and this is what the review is all about. It's about improving things so that you can do more with what you've got." Focus group, April 2012

Follow us on:

What are people saying?

Contact Us