Lincolnshire Healthcare Changes (STP)

This report provides details of a survey undertaken by Healthwatch North East Lincolnshire about changes to healthcare in this area. The survey emerged because of concerns that local people were being given limited opportunity to engage with the changes being considered under the Sustainability and Transformation Partnership arrangements for this area especially the `seldom heard voices’. A questionnaire was drawn up and agreed in consultation with the North East Lincolnshire Clinical Commissioning Group’s Communications and Engagement Team and was targeted at service users of Healthwatch Partner Programme agencies. The survey examined people’s experiences of local services before asking about current understanding and involvement in local change plans and interest in future involvement.

A total of 104 surveys were completed and returned and the report collates and analyses these findings which highlight that: With regards to experiences of local health services, GP practices and Hospital there are situations that both work well and not so well: well in terms of care given but access to GP services, wait times at hospital and time to listen are seen as problems; key issues in improving services are listening and communication, frontline staffing levels and access arrangements; over ¾ of people surveyed were not aware of new plans for healthcare in our area; Service provision is the main priority for respondents with much less interest and understanding at how priorities are arrived at; Most respondents interested in further involvement would prefer to carry out further surveys but there are enough who would like face to face meetings to make these a viable option for the future.

The findings in this report will be shared with commissioners and providers to help shape public involvement in future engagement and consultation activities.