Better Care Together (STP) engagement, South Cumbria and Morecambe Bay

In early 2018 Healthwatch Cumbria and Healthwatch Lancashire were commissioned by representatives from the Better Care Together (BCT) Programme for Morecambe Bay to work as a Local Healthwatch Collaborative (LHC) to explore people’s views on the current challenges facing healthcare services across Morecambe Bay. The LHC was to engage with and gather feedback and ideas on what people think could be done to address the challenges facing Morecambe Bay’s healthcare services.

The BCT programme was set up in 2015 with the aim of reviewing health and social care services to help enable people to be as healthy as possible by getting communities more involved in managing their own health and wellbeing. The review is being led by ten health and care organisations across South Cumbria and Morecambe Bay.

Healthwatch Cumbria and Healthwatch Lancashire visited nine locations across Morecambe Bay and South Cumbria in the ‘Chatty Van’ mobile vehicle, and ran an online survey, to gather feedback on the challenges facing Morecambe Bay’s healthcare services and get ideas for addressing those challenges.

The challenges covered areas where the BCT were struggling to find solutions. These were around Prevention, attracting new staff in to the NHS, out of hospital care/ discharge planning, and waste or duplication within the system.

The 'Chatty Van' had people rank a variety of options to tackle the issues, and then had them list the pros and cons of their preferred option. This gave a good understanding of what people wanted to see, and also provided some practical suggestions for ways to think around the issue, or act on it.

The report was provided to BCT and will help them plan future services. It is noted that if there are any significant changes to be made then approval would need to be sought from NHS England. There may also be further engagement or consultation depending on what is decided following the feedback gathered from this engagement.