Health organisations from across the whole of Kent and Medway are working together to plan how they will transform health and social care services to meet the changing needs of local people.They want to get this right, and they know that they need your views to help them do that.
In addition to the local work taking place in east Kent, NHS, social care and public health organisations from across the whole of Kent and Medway are working together to plan how they will transform health and social care services to meet the changing needs of local people. It is the first time they have all worked together in this way and it gives them a unique opportunity to bring about positive and genuine improvement in health and social care delivery over the next five years.
They are developing a Health and Social Care Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) that will set out how they think services need to change over the next five years to achieve the right care for people for decades to come. It will help them deliver the Five Year Forward View, which sets out the national vision for health and social care. They will only be able to decide on and implement any changes following a period of engagement and consultation with our communities – this is just the start of the process.
They need to do this because the current health and social care system isn’t set up to meet the needs of today’s population. Many more people are living longer – which is great – but they want and need a different kind of care.
Although most people get good care most of the time, services are not always good enough, too many people wait too long for treatment and they can’t recruit enough staff. So, first and foremost, they need to design services that improve services for our patients. At the same time, they are facing a big financial problem. Across Kent and Medway, health and social care have £3.4billion in funding but overspent by £141million last year. Without change, they will be looking at a hole of £485million in our budgets by 2020/21.
The plan will provide:
- better health and wellbeing
- better standards of care
- better use of staff and funds
Their pledge to you
They want to get this right, and they know that they need your views to help them do that.
So they will use all the means at their disposal to involve patients, carers, the public and health and care professionals, at every stage.
At the appropriate time, there will be full public consultation about any substantial changes proposed but, first, they want to ask you to help them shape their ideas and plans.
Please get involved
Please spare the time to get involved – they need to hear from as many people as possible to get this right for the whole community.
Complete their survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/KandMstp
Find out more about what they want to achieve and our ideas so far by reading
Transforming health and social care in Kent and Medway. http://eastkent.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Transforming-health-and-social-care-frequently-asked-questions.pdf
It also has details of the local clinical commissioning group websites where you can find out how you can have your say.
Frequently asked questions about transforming health and social care in Kent and Medway
http://eastkent.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Transforming-health-and-social-care-frequently-asked-questions.pdf.
NHS East Kent Strategy Board 13th October 2016
http://eastkent.nhs.uk/news/stp-launch/