Prescription for Rural Health
Cymraeg
Download Prescription for Rural Health
NHS urges politicians to support change
As thousands of people gather at this week’s Royal Welsh Show, the Welsh NHS Confederation urges politicians to support change in rural health services.
Prescription for Rural Health 2011, launched today (Wednesday) by the Welsh NHS Confederation, sets out why changes to rural health services are ‘necessary and unavoidable’.
Helen Birtwhistle, Director of the Welsh NHS Confederation, asks politicians to use their extensive influence in their local communities to support change where it is clear that a different way of doing things will benefit patients.
“Change, any change, is rarely popular. The NHS in Wales is reaching a critical point and we need to see across the board support for transformational change not just in principle, but in practice.
“NHS organisations in rural parts of Wales have already introduced new and innovative ways of bringing care closer to home. However, there will inevitably need to be some tough, and potentially unpopular, decisions taken about where we provide more complex, specialist services.”
The Confederation says that change is essential to enable the NHS to improve the quality and safety of its services. It will also allow funds to be freed up to be re-invested in patient care.
Ms Birtwhistle added: “We have to look very closely at what all of our hospitals in rural Wales are providing and whether we should organise services differently.
“The NHS cannot provide every type of healthcare service in every hospital – there simply aren’t enough qualified health professionals or money. In rural Wales it is also the case that there are too few patients to run certain services safely or effectively.
“If we try to maintain every service in every hospital, we will end up spreading our staff and resources too thinly. And where there is duplication across several sites, it may be better to centralise those services into fewer, fully-equipped centres of excellence.
“Although some patients may need to travel further for specialist, more complex treatment, the majority of their care will be provided much closer to home.”
Prescription for Rural Health 2011 outlines a number of examples of where the health service is being innovative in the way it is bringing care closer to home for people in rural communities. Examples range from nurses being given additional training to treat patients in Minor Injuries Units, to expanding community pharmacy services, to hi-tech telemedicine which allows specialist consultant expertise to be available in GP surgeries.
Mobile facilities including screening, dialysis treatment, dental checks, and other diagnostic services are proving popular with patients who don’t have to travel long distances for relatively simple procedures. And outreach services, such as satellite outpatient clinics held by consultants from larger hospitals are hosted in local clinics and community hospitals.
In addition, volunteer and community schemes are enabling people stay independent in their own home – one such scheme in Powys enables GPs to recommend the company and support of a volunteer to monitor elderly people and help with basic tasks, thus avoiding unnecessary hospital admission.
Many of the projects are funded through the government’s Rural Health Innovation Fund.
“Despite many positive improvements in local, rural healthcare, we recognise that people are protective of traditional services, and particularly attached to much-loved small local hospitals.
“We understand that many people will be anxious about change to their local health services but we want to reassure them that where changes are planned, it is to improve people’s health and the long-term future of local services.
“But the NHS cannot do this in isolation. Politicians play an extremely important role in helping us to explain the need for change and build the public’s confidence in our community services.
“We know we have a responsibility to keep local representatives informed of latest developments and we’re working hard to make sure their views, and those of the public, are heard.”
For more information, please contact Sian Pugh
01656 643800
sian.pugh@welshconfed.org