The NHS in North Devon wants to take more time to hear from local people about the Torrington Community Cares test of change and to complete some final actions before the Boards make a decision.
The time people can comment on the test of change is being extended, ensuring people get extra time to make comments or ask questions to Northern, Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group (NEW Devon CCG) and Northern Devon Healthcare NHS Trust (NDHT).
Dr Chris Bowman, clinical director of community services for NDHT, said: “We have fulfilled all our duties to engage and involve the community during this project.
“However, we have always held a genuine desire to work in partnership with the community. Earlier this week we had a very productive meeting with Geoffrey Cox, MP for Torridge and West Devon, and members of the Torrington community, including STITCH.
“At this meeting, it was requested that the NDHT and CCG Boards agreed to oversee the completion of four remaining tasks before making any final decision about the model of care in Torrington.
As part of this extension, the Boards have agreed the following actions should be completed before a decision can be made:
- 21 days for the community to send in their written concerns or feedback about the care they have received from the community health and social care team serving Great Torrington
- A completed dataset to be provided to the Torrington Oversight Group to enable them to make a recommendation to the Boards of NDHT and the CCG’S Northern Locality
- A final stakeholder forum to discuss the project
- The NHS to seek an independent body to conduct an impartial review of the evaluation data
To support the achievement of the first recommendation, the CCG and NDHT are asking any patient with concerns or feedback about the care they have received to contact us.
Dr John Womersley, chair of the Northern Locality of NEW Devon CCG, said: “Please let us know about your experiences, both good or bad, of being looked after in the community. Your comments are a very important part of the information we use to decide if a service is safe, of high quality and affordable in today’s financial climate.”
To allow us to investigate any concerns or care experiences, we will require the consent of the patient. The consent form can be obtained by downloading from the www.torringtoncares.co.uk website, contacting PALS on 01271 314090 or by emailing ndht.involve@nhs.net. The address to send in consent and experiences will be on this consent form.
The 21 days to let the NHS hear this feedback starts on Monday 28 July 2014. The deadline for responses is Monday 18 August 2014.
The NHS is planning to complete the remaining three actions as soon as possible.
The test of change looks at whether people who may ordinarily have been an inpatient at Torrington Community Hospital could instead be treated in their own homes by the Trust’s expanded community rehabilitation and nursing teams.
Ceasing the inpatient service would free up space at the hospital for other health and social care services, meaning some patients could be seen locally instead of having to travel to Barnstaple. The new ultrasound service is a good example of the possibilities for local people.