Health and care leaders in Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire will be listening to views put forward by local residents as they draw up plans for the future.
Over 2000 people across the region have passed on their views about improving health and care services by answering questionnaires and attending events organised by local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and independent health champion Healthwatch.
Members of the public were invited to share their views as part of the ‘Our Health Our Future’ campaign, organised by local CCGs, and the Healthwatch #Whatwouldyoudo? campaign.
The results of the Healthwatch survey have now been published online.
The Healthwatch survey showed local people would like to see improved use of technology for booking appointments, more help for people to lead healthier lifestyles, shorter waiting times for access to GP appointments and for health professionals to have a better understanding of long-term health conditions such as autism.
The ‘Our Health Our Future’ campaign closed on 31st July and collected responses from around 1600 people across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire via surveys and a further 750 people via face to face conversations.
Results from the survey will now be analysed by an independent researcher and will be shared with the public in the autumn.
Views collected from both campaigns will be used by health leaders as they draw up a plan for how health and care services across the region will be organised over the next five years.
Dr Ian Orpen, Chair of the BaNES, Swindon and Wiltshire Clinical Board, said: “We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to fill in the surveys and speak to us at events across the region over the past few weeks.
“It’s clear that local people have strong views about how heath and care services should be organised in the future. We will listen to them and make sure we address their concerns as we draw up plans for how we organise services over the coming years.”
Carol Willis, Manager at Healthwatch Swindon said: “The Government is investing an additional £20 billion a year until 2023 in the NHS to implement the vision laid out in the NHS Long Term Plan.
“We were asked to help find out what local people thought was the best way for the NHS in Bath & North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire to invest in the right services as part of this plan.
“It was wonderful to listen to so many people keen to make a difference to our local NHS. These views are all in the report and we will now monitor how the local NHS responds.”