The Trust that runs hospital and community services in north Cumbria is seeking views from the community as it develops a new clinical strategy to improve the healthcare and the health of our community.
Clinical leaders at North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust have outlined action they think is needed to help everyone to be healthier and receive the best possible care.
They are now asking the wider community for their views on the corporate strategy one team, delivering outstanding connected care so they can develop a clinical strategy to support this.
Plans to help people get the care they need more quickly and improve the health and wellbeing of the community include:
· Making sure we have excellent emergency services at West Cumberland Hospital and the Cumberland Infirmary
· Doing more planned operations across North Cumbria at the West Cumberland Hospital
· Building more specialist services at the Cumberland Infirmary
· Providing more services in the community
· Being able to access more services through your phone or computer
Dr Helen Skinner, Medical Director said, “We’re clear on our challenges – we have a growing and ageing population with longer life expectancy, living more years in poor health with multiple long term conditions. The pandemic has led to longer waiting lists for planned care. The number of people waiting for elective procedures in North Cumbria has risen to over 40,000, and it is still rising. We have more people attending our A&E departments and pockets of social deprivation in many of the communities we serve meaning that not everyone has equitable access to healthcare.”
“We have to adapt and do something radically different if we want everyone to be healthier and receive the best possible care. We can’t just keep doing what we have always done, we need to make changes.”
One of the ways the Trust plans to address this is by doing more planned operations by establishing a surgical hub at West Cumberland Hospital. Surgical hubs are an important part of plans to increase surgical capacity across the country, and to offer hundreds of thousands more patients quicker access to some of the most common procedures.
Over the summer, the clinical leaders from the Trust will be at events across the County, meeting with partners and community groups and sending out surveys to capture people’s views.
Dr Skinner said, “We really want to understand the views of our staff, patients, and our wider community to help inform the development of our clinical strategy, and once that has been agreed, we will want to involve our communities in more detail in coproducing new pathways that will improve care.”
Dr Skinner has outlined the plans to the Governor’s Council at the Trust.
Jacqueline Nicol, Lead Governor said, “Part of the role of a governor is to represent the views of our members in the community. We will support the Trust in seeking views by being present at some of the community events and meetings and reviewing the feedback received from surveys sent to our members – you can also contact us directly through askyourgovernor@ncic.nhs.uk”
You can have your say by:
· Asking us to attend your meeting contact medical.directorate@ncic.nhs.
· Attending one of the Cumberland Council Operation Respect events we are attending:
The events run as follows, all from 10am until 3pm:
· Heysham park, Raffles, Carlisle: 23 July
· Beck Green, Egremont: 31 July
· Harriston Green, Aspatria: 6 August
· Windsor Road, Westfield, Workington: 8 August
· Mirehouse, Whitehaven: 21 August
