Health and care partners are inviting people living in Gloucestershire to share their views on the county’s five year Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), which was published earlier this month.

The Gloucestershire STP sets out the very significant challenges that exist and the opportunities to ensure that local people can access high quality, sustainable and safe physical and mental health care into the future.

Clinical Chair of NHS Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, Dr Andy Seymour said:

“We face a growing number of challenges, so need to accelerate the pace of change. Together with our staff, partners and the public, we need to be forward thinking in how we organise services and community support and use the money available to us.”

The main challenges facing the county include a growing population with more complex needs, increasing demand for services, escalating drug costs, recruiting enough staff with the right skills and expertise and considerable pressure on NHS and social care finances.

The STP sets out priorities including:

• Placing greater emphasis on prevention of illness and self-care, with investment to support this
• Providing more joined up care and support in people’s homes and in the community
• Exploring options to bring together some district general hospital services into ‘centres of excellence’ to ensure safety and quality
• Developing a ‘best use of medicines’ programme and priority fund the drugs and treatments that have the greatest health benefit for the population
• Developing a sustainable workforce
• Making the most of new technologies

Dr Seymour added:

“We are now in a period of staff and public engagement over the priorities set out in the plan, and we want everyone to be able to have their say and know that their voice will be heard. Their feedback will enable us to develop detailed proposals for change for discussion over the course of next year.”

People in Gloucestershire are invited to provide their feedback by 24 February 2017, and there are a number of ways which this can be done:

• Complete the Freepost survey online at www.gloucestershireSTP.net or at the back of the Short Guide (to request a copy of the Short Guide, contact yourviews.glosstp@nhs.net)
• Send an email to: yourviews.glosstp@nhs.net
• Visit the Information Bus (details below and on the website)

To read more about the STP and find out about how you can get involved, visit the STP website at: www.gloucestershireSTP.net