Giving local people the power to shape and improve their health services
21/09/2011
People have been finding out how they can get more involved in shaping and improving local health services at meetings throughout Gloucestershire this week.
Community groups and individuals who already have a role in health services locally and represent patients and carers, including Gloucestershire LINk, have been invited to meetings organised by Gloucestershire Care Services.
The meetings in Gloucester, Cheltenham, Moreton-in-Marsh and Coleford have also involved county, district, borough, town and parish councillors and representatives from the education sector and children’s centres. Other meetings will take place in Stroud, Cirencester and Tewkesbury.
Gloucestershire Care Services Community Interest Company CIC) will be a new social enterprise organisation that will provide community-based health services from October 1st.
These include nine community hospitals, district nursing and therapy staff providing services across the county for children, young people and adults. These will continue to be NHS services free at the point of delivery and provided by the same staff and from the same NHS buildings and clinics or in a patient’s own home.
As a social enterprise, giving the public and staff a say in how the organisation is run and how it can best meet local needs will be key. This includes influencing decisions about how all surpluses made by the organisation are reinvested to improve services for local people.
Gloucestershire Care Services CIC is, therefore, planning to set up community and staff groups to ensure that these decisions are made at a local level. These groups will also review the performance of the organisation, have a say in decisions and make proposals on how to improve services.
At the meetings being held around the county, people have been finding out more about how they can get involved and help shape the membership model that will be used. Public drop-ins will be held later in the year for local people to express an interest in becoming members.
Staff meetings are also being held in all districts of the county. From October 1st, all members of staff will automatically become shareholders.
The proposal is to create eight staff forums throughout the county, with members then elected to a Staff Council, and eight community groups that feed into a Gloucestershire Community Forum. After people have fed back on these proposals at the meetings, a decision will be taken on the way forward.
Penny Harris, Chief Executive Designate of Gloucestershire Care Services CIC, said: “The first meetings have been extremely useful. They have given us a further opportunity to set out the vision and values of the new organisation and to provide reassurance about the change, as well as to gauge people’s interest in becoming members of the community groups and how we could take this forward.
“The meetings have also provided us with an opportunity to clarify some of the issues that have been raised recently and to reassure people that we will continue to provide NHS services.
“Those people and groups who already work closely with us in shaping community healthcare can now have an even greater influence and have welcomed the idea of community membership. This opportunity will be offered more widely in the coming months and we would like to hear from people interested in getting involved.”
For more information on membership and to download a membership form, go to www.gloscareservices.nhs.uk or e-mail GCSmembership@glos.nhs,uk or call 08456 598100.
