The Big Conversation has now come to a close. Watch this space for updates and in the meantime take a look around our site to find out more about our work.
Salford Together, a partnership between the NHS and City Council in Salford, are inviting the public to have their say on plans to transform the way health and care services are provided in the future.
‘The Big Health and Care Conversation’ – a two-month city-wide engagement exercise, will be open to the 189,000 adult population who live in Salford or attend a GP practice in the area.
Salford has some of the poorest health and care outcomes in Greater Manchester and the UK. For example more than one in five of the Salford population are living with a long term condition such as diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
To help tackle this, Salford’s NHS organisations and the Council have been drawing up plans to continue to integrate health and care services in Salford to bring more services into the local communities, closer to people’s homes.
District nurses, hospital consultants, mental health professionals and social workers are just some of the services that could work more closely together with local GPs.
NHS and council representatives will be on hand at events across the city, not only to explain why and how things might change, but also to listen to the views of the public. People can also provide their views via an online survey. https://www.salfordtogether.com/survey-big-health-and-care-conversation/
Staff will be on hand at supermarkets, GP practices and outpatient clinics as well as outdoor events such as Salford’s Big Day Out and Walkden Family Festival.
Local clinicians and other health and social care professionals will attend neighbourhood committees in all the Salford neighbourhoods between July and September. The discussions will be centred on the following:
- The development of Neighbourhood teams – teams of health and care professionals (GPs, district nurses, social workers, hospital consultants, mental health professionals etc) to co-ordinate care better
- How we can support and sustain General Practice – Ensuring people who have a medical need have quick and easy access to GPs and providing access to a wider range of support through practices such as; pharmacists, physiotherapists, advanced nurse practitioners and care workers
- Extended Care – Developing services to help people remain at home or recover during or after an illness
- Redesigning the patient’s journey – Providing more services in the community, closer to home, developing better support to help people manage long term conditions such as heart and lung problems and mental health as well as management of back problems & reducing the risk of falls
- Self-care and self-management – Encouraging people to take greater responsibility for their own health and supporting them to manage their conditions at home
The Big Conversation is also hoping to inspire people to make pledges to take action to improve their own health, use health and care services differently and make better use of community groups and activities.
Salford City Councillor Tracy Kelly, Lead Member for Adult Services, Health and Wellbeing, said: “It’s very important that we get the views of as many people as possible on our plans for the future – plans that will shape how health and care services are managed in Salford in the future.
“We will take all comments on board and these views will be considered as we progress, so please come along to one of the events and have your say or provide your views online via our questionnaire.”
Chris Evans, Managing Director, Salford Integrated Care Organisation, said: “As a health and care system, we want to work in a much more integrated and ‘joined up’ way to improve people’s health and care experience. Just over a year ago we brought together over 2,000 staff from our NHS organisations and Council to create an Integrated Care Organisation or ICO to work in a more integrated way.
“Bringing hospital, community and social care services together will reduce duplication and allow our services to offer more consistent care across the city. This also allows us to work more efficiently, meaning the health and care system in Salford is financially stable.
“Working together, we will develop more services in local communities, nearer to people’s homes, tailored to meet local needs. This will mean we can work together with local people to help them manage their health and wellbeing more effectively. “
Dr Neil Turton, Chief Executive Salford Primary Care Together said: “In Salford, we’ve shown that partnership working is one of our major strengths – and good partnership working with our local residents is a key part of this.
“Our GP’s are under increasing pressure to deal with a wide range of health and care issues and in many instances there are other services better suited to deal with people’s needs which we would like people to have fast and easy access to.
“As we continue on our journey, it is important that we keep talking to our local communities to check that our plans are right for them. Therefore I would encourage everyone to get involved with the ‘Conversation’ so that we can hear as many views as possible.”