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This booklet has been produced by Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABMU) We would be happy to send you more copies in Welsh or English or in the follow- ing formats: • Braille (Welsh or English) • Talking Book (Welsh or English) • British Sign Language • Easy Read (Welsh or English) • Large print version (Welsh or English) There is a short film about our ideas and much more information on our website www.changingforthebetter.org.uk and YouTube™ as well (ABMULHB channel). You can download more copies of this booklet and copies of other associated documents from the site. For further copies or other formats to be sent to you, please ring our helpline (01792) 704019, email us at [email protected] or write to Changing for the Better team, ABMU, One Talbot Gateway, Baglan Energy Park, Baglan, Port Talbot SA12 7BR Illustration & design G John Rees ABMU Production ABMU Medical Illustration Dept. © ABMU Health Board 2012 3 CONTENTS Who Are We And What Do We Do? ................................................................................ 7 What is This Booklet About And Who Should Read It? .................................... 9 Our Vision For Your Future Healthcare ............................................................................ 10 What Are The Challenges Facing Us? ............................................................................... 14 What We’ve Been Doing So Far ........................................................................................ 22 Working Together With Other Health Boards ............................................................... 26 Which ABMU Services Has Changing For The Better Been Looking At? .............. 27 Which Services Has The South Wales Programme Been Looking At? .................... 29 Ideas Emerging From The Changing For The Better Work ..................................... 31 How GP and Community Services Could Change ........................................................ 44 The South Wales Programme - A Summary Of Its Recommendations .................. 46 4 CHANGING FOR THE BETTER: Our ideas for your local NHS Combined Possible Impacts of the South Wales Programme Recommendations .................................................................. 51 What the South Wales Programme could mean for your hospitals ........................ 54 What Happens Next? .......................................................................................................... 60 How Can You Have Your Say? .......................................................................................... 6 2 ...Have Your Say! 5 6 CHANGING FOR THE BETTER: Our ideas for your local NHS WHO ARE WE, AND WHAT DO WE DO? Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board (ABMU) runs your local NHS services in Bridgend, Neath Port Talbot and Swansea, and some specialist services for people from further away. We plan the services provided by GPs, dentists, chemists and opticians as well as community services such as district nursing, therapists, school nursing and health visiting. We also have four main hospitals – Morriston, Singleton, Neath Port Talbot and the Princess of Wales, as well as some community hospitals. We provide inpatient and community mental health services and a full range of learning disability services for an even greater population. We help you stay fit and healthy by providing information and support about healthy lifestyles. In all of this we work closely with patients, their families and carers, the ambulance service, local authorities, universities and the voluntary sector. ...Have Your Say! 7 A483 A470 Carmarthen A48 Ystalyfera Merthyr Tydfil A465 Pontardawe 4 M4 A4138 Resolven Llanelli 3 NEATH 5 SWANSEA Maesteg A48 2 7 Pontypridd Reynoldston 6 PORT TALBOT Swansea Bay Ogmore Vale Bishopston Pyle M4 8 N BRIDGEND CARDIFF KEY : Gorseinon 5 Cimla Singleton 6 Neath Port Talbot Morriston 7 Maesteg Community Gellinudd 8 Princess of Wales Community Main hospitals Hospitals by county 8 CHANGING FOR THE BETTER: Our ideas for your local NHS WHAT IS THIS BOOKLET ABOUT AND WHO SHOULD READ IT? The NHS in Wales is facing some huge challenges and we think that we need to make major changes so in future our healthcare services are safe, reliable and high quality. There is more information on why change is becoming urgent in Why Your Local NHS Needs to Change which we published in May. You can download it from our website or request a copy (see page 2 for contact details). This booklet describes the work we have been doing around this, and outlines our ideas for future NHS care in ABMU. It also contains a summary of the recommendations of another change project which has been running in parallel, The South Wales Programme, which will have an impact on some of our services. We want to share these ideas with you, and get your feedback to influence the next stage - where we will go on to develop more detailed proposals for the next five years. Over 500,000 people live in ABMU and we employ nearly 17,000 staff. It’s vital that as many as possible know about our ideas and the reasons for them, and have a say about how local NHS services can give the best possible care now, and in the future. We tell you how you can let us know what you think at the end of this booklet. ...Have Your Say! 9 OUR VISION FOR YOUR FUTURE HEALTHCARE We want a local NHS which offers the best quality care possible within the resources we have available. Our ambition is to provide NHS services in Swansea, Bridgend, and Neath Port Talbot that are comparable to the best anywhere. There are a number of challenges at the moment which are preventing this (more on that later), but we believe we can overcome these, and we have a clear vision of where we want to be by 2018. It’s not only about improving the way we deliver clinical care. We also want to do more to support our population to stay as healthy as possible by making better informed lifestyle choices. Prevention, after all, is better than cure! We know that where you live within ABMU makes a big difference to how long you live and how healthy you are. So we want the gap between the health of the better off and the poor to reduce significantly. We also know that thanks to advances in health and social care our population is living longer. However that means that the biggest demands on the NHS in future will be caring for frail older people. This means increasing the contribution of primary care (GPs) and community services to help older people maintain their independence and well being. So we want to make sure we offer services and resources to meet this challenge. If you have a chronic condition like diabetes or emphysema, we want to work with you to manage your condition more effectively, so you are less likely to end up in hospital as an emergency admission. 10 CHANGING FOR THE BETTER: Our ideas for your local NHS We want to involve you in planning the care you need and the way in which services will be provided for you. We will develop our GPs and community teams to give you better information, education and support to help you keep on top of your illness and let you continue to live your life as fully as possible. This will also ease the pressure on hospital beds, for those that really need them. We want to make it easier and faster for you to access high quality NHS services; even though sometimes that might mean you travelling a bit further for certain services. That might sound like a contradiction. But our ideas for reshaping services will actually offer you better access to expert teams while also moving many services normally only offered in a hospital setting closer to your homes. We need to make the most of the skilled staff we have available, particularly some doctors who are in short supply, so we anticipate offering more ‘regional centres of excellence’ where you will be treated by teams of people who are not only specialists in their field, but who are also very experienced because they deal with many cases. At the moment we have too few staff trying to provide some services on too many sites. It means that in future you will receive the very best care we have to offer, from a service which is both reliable and safe, and which meets all the modern quality standards. We realise that if you have to travel a bit further to one of our other ABMU hospitals to receive such a service, that transport may be a worry. So once you have received your specialist treatment, we will help you go home as soon as possible. Rather than transfer you to another hospital, like a community hospital, for ongoing care, we will instead aim to look after you in your own home. Evidence shows that people get better quicker when they are in familiar surroundings, and they are more likely to keep their independence. ...Have Your Say! 11 We also know from feedback that patients prefer to be treated in or closer to their home. We will do this by providing strengthened community-based and GP services to look after you at home. This could mean, for example, that a team of nurses and therapists will come to your home for several weeks until you are back on your feet. We are also taking opportunities to build state-of-the-art Primary Care Resource Centres which are like 21st century health centres, as and where we can. They not only have primary care services like GPs and dentists, but increasingly are offering services which were once only available in hospital settings – like warfarin clinics. Some of our community hospitals may also evolve to play a similar role. However we know that buildings are only part of the story, and so strengthening and supporting the primary healthcare team is a key priority for us, wherever they are based. Modern technology can also play a significant role in shifting the balance of care into GP practices and patients’ own homes. We spend on average £1641 every year for each person in ABMU; half of this in our four main hospitals (Acute Hospital Care) 12 CHANGING FOR THE BETTER: Our ideas for your local NHS At the moment we spend a lot of our money on hospital services, but in future we want the balance to change so community-based health services get a much larger share.