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Liberating the NHS LINks Consultation

Liberating the NHS - Consultation

Oxfordshire LINk would like your views about the future of health and social care. The government wants to make the NHS more efficient and improve the way that patients and carers get the treatment and care they need, so it is proposing the most radical shake up of the NHS in decades.

These are outlined in a White Paper called EQUITY AND EXCELLENCE: LIBERATING THE NHS. For more information, you can read the White Paper on www.dh.gov.uk and click on publications. A short briefing summary about the White Paper is available online at www. makesachange.org.uk

The government is now consulting on its ideas and proposals. This survey takes some of the issues identified in the White Paper, and asks about the most important priorities from the viewpoint of the public, patients, service users, carers. By completing the survey we will collate all LINk participants’ responses and reply to one of the several consultations. The survey should only take a few minutes to complete.

Vision for the future

  
The White Paper outlines the government’s vision and makes proposals to make the make the NHS more responsive, transparent, and better able to withstand the funding pressures in the future. This aims to build on what is best in the NHS, working to achieve continual improvements, whilst being honest and open about shortcomings. With the financial pressures, the NHS faces many challenges and difficult local decisions will be necessary.
 
Question 1: What do you think are the most important priorities that should included in any vision for the NHS in the future?
   
Health and social care services must be more integrated
   
NHS, health and social care services should be centred on the needs of patients and carers
   
All citizens must have a greater say about how NHS, health and social care services are planned, provided and regulated
   
Doctors should be in control of health and care service delivery
   
Doctors have the necessary skills to commission services
   
Patients and service users must be offered significantly more choices about providers of their treatment and care
   
Patient, service users and their carers should be fully involved with professionals in regular reviews of their treatment and care plans
   
NHS health and social care services must be more transparent and accountable for quality and results
   
What else do you think - from the patient / carer viewpoint - should be included in the vision for future health and social care services?
   

Putting Patients First

  
It is the Government’s view that patients and communities and local areas should have a voice which is heard and listened to by both local authority and nationally through the new consumer champion HealthWatch.
   
Question 2: How do you think an effective public voice should be provided on local health and social care issues?
   
Citizen involvement and engagement must cover both health and social care services
   
The views and feedback from patients, service users and carers must be an integral part of local commissioning across health and social care
   
Local Healthwatch groups should be funded by and accountable to local Councils
   
Volunteers should provide advocacy and support services to help people access and to make choices about their health or care services, to make a complaint, or to register with a GP
   
HealthWatch must be able to report concerns about the quality of services and providers, independently of their local authority
   
Placing HealthWatch as consumer champion within Care Quality Commission and local Council control would damage its independence
   
Complaints are an important way for providers to assess the quality of their services
   
How can the public voice about NHS, health and care issues best be heard by those that commission, provide and regulate these services?
   
Any other suggestions and comments:
   
If you are not already an Oxfordshire LINk member and would like to be, please complete the following:
Name:
 
Address:
   
Email:
 

Thank you for completing this questionnaire.