Primary Care Draft Strategy for Consultation: November 2016 - Healthwatch Isle of Wight Response
Many people have told us that they value their relationship with their GP and this relationship is essential to their wellbeing.
Primary care services usually provide peoples first point of contact in the health care system and act as the 'front door' of the NHS, therefore it is essential that the impact of any proposed changes to GP practices are fully assessed and discussed with the public.
Our annual prioritisation survey (April 2016) identified that primary care services are the number one concern for Isle of Wight residents and this led to us completing a piece of work around the availability and accessibility of appointments. This report will be published by January 2017 and highlights the difficulties faced by GP practices to manage an ever increasing workload and also the difficulty many people have in accessing a routing appointment with their preferred GP.
We would urge the Clinical Commissioning Group to ensure that all options for future primary care provision are made available to the public in a way that ensures full transparency. Any change in primary care provision could have significant impact on individuals, so issues such as travel, availability of public transport, location of GP surgeries and patient choice, must be fully considered before any decision is made to change services or facilities.
We are aware of the national and local shortage of GPs and the need to engage other staff.
During any public consultation, the public have the right to expect a clear explanation of why change is needed and what options are available. They should be kept fully informed from the beginning and consultation documents should be written in plain English to ensure everyone's voice is heard. People's views should also be fully considered and must inform any decision making. This is the only way to ensure services are designed effectively and efficiently.
Healthwatch Isle of Wight feels it is essential that noone is disadvantaged due to proposed changes to primary care services so we would strongly urge the public to express their views on the future of local primary care services either to the Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group or through Healthwatch Isle of Wight.
