Have your say on health and care changes

Argyll’s health and care board has launched a consultation on service changes it needs to make over the next three years.

Argyll and Bute Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) is developing its second strategic plan to run between April 2019 to March 2022, and is seeking feedback on the ‘service change required to deliver [its] ambitions’.

NHS Highland explained on its webpage: ‘The challenging financial position means the HSCP cannot do everything to meet the public’s expectations of care.

‘Delivering services within a balanced budget will require a shift of focus to delivering high quality and effective services for people with a complex range of needs. This includes investing in communities, enabling and supporting people to enjoy the best quality of life possible, informed by choices they make for themselves.

‘To further develop our strategy we are conducting a questionnaire to collate feedback on the eight strategic areas of service change. This will help assess viability on a quality, operational and financial level and identify what we need to sustain or change to achieve an organisation that is fit for the future.’

Those areas are learning disability, mental health, primary care, hospital, corporate and children’s services, care homes and housing and the community model of care.

This first stage, taking place from summer to autumn 2018, seeks to ‘inform people about what the HSCP is going to do; invite comments on the key service change areas that are required; invite suggestions around what we need to do to make sure we involve people as we make these changes; use the information gathered in this stage to inform what we do next’.

You can find the survey and more information about the strategic plan on the NHS Highland website, under the news, views and events tab, or contact 01436 635080.

The deadline to respond to the HSCP is Sunday September 30.