Have Your Say on Health and Care in West Herts.

Local NHS organisations and Hertfordshire County Council are conducting the Your Care, Your Future review asking local residents, patients, service users and health and social care staff for their views about health and social care services in the area. More than 350 people have already responded and all the data received will be considered carefully by the Your Care, Your Future team, helping to inform the development of options for changing the way care is provided in the future.

To have your opinion included, you must complete the survey online at www.yourcareyourfuture.org.uk before Friday 6th February. You can also get involved by emailing info@yourcareyourfuture.org.uk or tweet: @YCYF_WestHerts.

Since Your Care, Your Future was launched on 21st November 2014, the review team has attended meetings with local community and patient groups, as well as clinicians and other health and social care staff across the four localities in West Hertfordshire: Hertsmere, Dacorum, St Albans, Three Rivers and Watford. Representatives from the review team have met with local people to hear their views and experiences of current services.

The Five Year Forward View, recently published by NHS England sets out the national picture and the challenges facing health and social care. The situation in West Hertfordshire reflects the national situation as local services need to cater for a changing population with ever increasing health and social care needs.

Dr Nicolas Small, GP & Chair of Your Care Your Future Programme Executive, said “It’s very helpful to get people’s feedback and to hear about people’s concerns and ideas for improvements. Several areas including some mental health services, support for older adults in later life and some services for children seem to be generating significant concern. We are already seeing growth in the number of young families moving to our area and at the same time many of us are living longer than ever before, often with complex care needs".

"In some parts of west Hertfordshire levels of obesity (especially childhood obesity), smoking and alcohol related admissions are higher than we’d like and, in many cases, they are increasing. We are also seeing higher numbers of people with dementia and people with depression or another mental health problem". 

"We know we need to do more to address these issues and transform how health and social care is delivered so that we are fit for the future. Residents have already given us lots of interesting and useful feedback in the weeks since the review was launched and I encourage everyone who would like to give us their feedback to do so as soon as possible"

The following organisations are working together on Your Care, Your Future: 

-  Herts Valleys Clinical Commissioning Group 

-  Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust 

-  Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust 

-  West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust (which manages Watford, St Albans and Hemel Hempstead hospitals) 

-  East of England Ambulance Service NHS Trust 

-  Hertfordshire County Council 

During February, the Your Care, Your Future review team will consider the feedback carefully to help identify opportunities to meet future health and social care needs in west Hertfordshire. Options for how services might be improved in the future are expected to be published later in the year and there will be plenty of additional opportunities for people to have their say.

Geoff Brown, CEO of Healthwatch Hertfordshire, said “Putting patients at the centre of their treatment is the main goal of Healthwatch Hertfordshire, and the Your Care, Your Future survey is a fantastic opportunity for the decision makers within the county to hear what it is the people want. We all understand that the way we look after people is changing. Increased demands on health and social care services coupled with changes in funding is a very tough balancing act. But it is vital that the people of Hertfordshire, the people who use and, in the end, pay for these services, are not forgotten." 

"We welcome this work, and see it as a great first step in listening to what the residents of this county want and need. We look forward to continuing to work with all of the other partners, ensuring that when it comes to health and social care, the person most in need is put first."

(Source: NHS Herts Valleys CCG)