Healthwatch Kent scrutinises the Integrated Urgent Care Review in Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley

Healthwatch Kent studied the Pre-Consultation Business Case and associated documents relating to Urgent Care services being reviewed by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley.

Findings included that: the documents reviewed clearly stated why the present Urgent Care service needs to change to meet the needs of local people, and a detailed impact assessment had been undertaken to understand which people and communities may be impacted by any changes to the service; three listening events were held in 2017 for the public to hear about the review and feed into the case for change, and patients were also part of the Urgent Care Steering Group; a detailed Communications & Engagement Plan clearly lists the audiences that they wished to reach including those communities that are harder to reach, which informed a range of community events from August to October 2017; there is written evidence that feedback from the people who attended these events informed the development of the options; 4000 people had been involved in the review of Urgent Care services since 2015; and this engagement has resulted in two options being put forward for public consultation.

Healthwatch Kent concluded that the work to review Urgent Care services in Dartford, Gravesham and Swanley has involved a range of people within the area to date. A detailed engagement plan had been developed and the impact on communities for both options had clearly been considered. Healthwatch Kent reported that they would like to see more evidence of which seldom heard communities were proactively involved in this process.