Delivering joined up health and social care services for local people in Greater Preston, Chorley and South Ribble

Have your say

A series of public events are being held in September to share the next phase of development. You can register your attendance through the following links:

18 September, 6 - 8pm: Leyland Civic Centre, West Paddock, Leyland

19 September, 6 - 8pm: Chorley Town Hall, Market Street, Chorley

20 September, 6 - 8pm: County Hall, Fishergate, Preston

The emerging model of care

Over the past two years the Our Health Our Care programme has been reviewing how local health services are organised and provided.

Considerable progress has been made in developing more services within the community, and work is ongoing to prevent ill health.

Our Health Our Care is now focusing on how our hospital services are delivered.

Why hospital services need to change

Demand is increasing for reasons such as:

• The population is ageing
• More people have multiple long term conditions
• More of us have unhealthy lifestyles

Because there is a shortage of staff in a number of areas of hospital care, it’s a challenge to provide safe and effective care, and to offer services seven days a week

All of this means there can be delays in treatment, so people spend longer in hospital than they should, which means the hospital doesn’t always have enough capacity to admit people for their planned operations, resulting in cancellations and longer waiting times.

So we need to change how we organise how we provide services, so that we’re providing safe, effective and timely care, create a better working environment for our staff, in a sustainable way.

The emerging model of care

Staff from many services have been involved in reviewing how services work now, and designing a new model of care that will address these challenges. Taking into account the views of staff, patients and lots of other people; as well as national clinical standards and guidance, best practice, and performance data, they have agreed principles to ensure the new model is fit for purpose.

Benefits of the emerging model

The emerging model of care organises services according to speciality and clinical need, which will reduce duplication, and enable us to better utilise our valuable workforce and resources.

Benefits of the emerging model include:

• Right care in the right time in the right place
• Reduced waiting times
• More care closer to home
• Reduced length of stay
• Fewer cancellations
• Improved quality
• Better patient experience
• Improved working environment for staff

At this stage, the emerging model simply proposes how services should be organised, but not where they are provided.This model could be delivered on co-located sites or separate sites.

What next?

When we’ve collected the feedback, clinicians with support from the Our Health Our Care programme team, will refine the model, and develop options for how this model can best be delivered. That proposal will be subject to a formal public consultation in the new year, and you will have a further chance then to have your say.

If you would like to get involved or find out more, email ohoc.enquiries@nhs.net or call 01772 214323 or you can write to us at Our Health Our Care, Chorley House, Lancashire Business Park, Centurion Way, Leyland, Lancashire, PR26 6TT.