Have Your Say on Future of Community Health Services

Media Release: Tuesday 5 October 2010

Walsall people are being invited to have their say on proposed changes to the way local community health services are managed.

Community health services include a wide range of health care services provided for patients in their own homes, in local health centres and from a variety of community bases.  They also include many children’s health services, health visitors, health promotion (for example, ‘quit smoking’ services), physiotherapy, district nurses, specialist nurses, rehabilitation, speech and language therapy and much more.

They are currently managed locally by Walsall Community Health (WCH) which is part of NHS Walsall.  But as NHS Walsall Chief Executive Denise McLellan explains: “Work has been going on for some time in Walsall to look at ways of bringing health services together to give our patients better co-ordinated, more efficient and even higher quality care. 

“This has involved our NHS and social care partners as well as other key stakeholders, including groups which represent patients.

“One way of ensuring that improvements to services can be made quickly, easily and efficiently is to bring them together under the same management, so that patients benefit from more joined up, better planned and co-ordinated care.”

“This aim has been supported by a national initiative called Transforming Community Services, which means that by April 2011 organisations like NHS Walsall which commission (buy) health services for local people have to be completely separate from any organisations which provide that care.”

With a clear date to aim for, NHS Walsall is now consulting on a package of proposals which include:

• Bringing together the majority of community health services with the services currently provided by Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust in one organisation.

• Transferring the management of services for people with learning disabilities to Sandwell Mental Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust.

• Co-ordinating community dental services into a specialist dental support service, covering Birmingham and the Black Country and managed by the proposed NHS Community Foundation Trust based in Birmingham.  (This would not affect ‘high street’ dental services)

Further work is currently being done on plans for the future of the nurse-led nurse primary care practice at Blakenall Health Centre which is currently managed by Walsall Community Health.

Denise McLellan adds: “Although patients are unlikely to see any immediate changes to how or where they receive their care as a result of these management changes, they are designed to pave the way for significant improvements in the near future.

“We have already had a lot of help from many of our stakeholders in putting together these proposals, but the views of local people are very important to us, which is why this week we have also launched a four week public consultation.”

The consultation runs until Friday October 29. More information on the consultation, including information on how people can have their say, is available from the NHS Walsall website at

www.walsall.nhs.uk/Have_your_say/TCS_Consultation.asp

For more information please contact:
Richard Haynes, NHS Walsall on 01922 619946 or email richard.haynes@walsall.nhs.uk