The NHS in east Kent is committed to working with the public and staff to improve and develop your services
Our thinking has been informed by conversations with the public, staff and clinicians over a number of years. Recently we have been working with the public to develop more detailed proposals for the future of health and social care and options for which sites should provide which services.
On 30 November 2017, health commissioners, the people who plan and pay for healthcare, agreed potential options for the way urgent, emergency and acute medical care and planned inpatient orthopaedic care could be provided.
These will now be assessed further by NHS staff and patient and public representatives against a set of “evaluation criteria”, developed with the public earlier this year, to assess the advantages and disadvantages of each potential option in fine detail.
This will include looking at how the options deliver improvements in patient care, are accessible for patients, can be staffed, are affordable within the funds available, deliverable within the timeframe needed and support research and education.
This will result in a shortlist of options which will be part of a public consultation led by the Clinical Commissioning Groups in east Kent. Work to review the options is ongoing and a date for the public consultation will be announced in due course.
You can read more about the decision making process here.
You can also find out more in these frequently asked questions.
To inform our early thinking we engaged with our staff and worked with clinicians on what the best future models of care could be, we also worked closely with Healthwatch Kent on a programme of engagement with the public in 2015. You can read the feedback report here.
A series of public events about future services also took place during 2017, where we asked for feedback to help shape the development and delivery of these plans. You can read the feedback report from independent analysts DJS Research, which shows the results and key themes.
We also worked with Engage Kent to discuss the plans with people from seldom-heard groups. You can read their feedback in this report which highlights the views expressed.
Sometimes we use acronyms and terminology you might be unfamiliar with. You may find this glossary of terms and phrases helpful.
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