Pre-consultation engagement for the future of services at Castleberg Hospital
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Between 7 August and 15 September 2017, Healthwatch North Yorkshire carried out an engagement exercise in conjunction with Airedale, Wharfedale and Craven Clinical Commissioning Group (the CCG) to help determine the future of services until recently provided at Castleberg Hospital. In this first of two stages, people were asked to share their thoughts on what would be the best way to conduct a future consultation about intermediate, end-of-life and palliative care services in Craven, and for their thoughts on what options should be included in that consultation.
There were seven drop-in sessions – at Settle, Grassington, Skipton, Sutton-in-Craven and Bentham. Leaflets and posters were delivered to a range of public venues, including local shops, in all of the main centres of population in Craven. Adverts for the drop-in sessions were carried in the Craven Herald and Pioneer, the Westmoreland Gazette, and the Bentham News. In addition, we promoted the sessions through Facebook advertising for the duration of the engagement period, with a reach of 16,327 people. The Facebook advert converted into 218 clicks on the engagement webpage/questionnaire. The sessions were also supported by press releases, other social media updates and the websites of the CCG and ANHSFT. The engagement document was available online, at engagement sessions, and was sent by email and/or letter to stakeholders at the start of the engagement period.
People living in Craven , GP practices, voluntary and community sector organisations, hospices, local media, councillors and MPs, pharmacies, libraries and shops – and a wide range of other organisations/venues. Community nurses were asked to take engagement leaflets to patients currently receiving care at home to enable them to respond.
Overall, 294 questionnaires and 51 emails/letters were returned and 254 people attended the drop-in sessions.
Across the answers to the six questions that were a part of the pre-consultation, it was clear that there was a high degree of interest and emotion regarding the future of Castleberg Hospital. Residents were most concerned about still having access to local, good quality care. The report found that, moving forward, a future consultation would ideally focus on having clear, accessible information regarding potential plans, a range of opportunities for feedback, and evidence of having taken views of service users into account.