A three month public consultation on changes proposed in Dorset’s Clinical Services Review (CSR) starts today and will run until 28 February 2017.
Local residents are encouraged to take part in the 12 week public consultation to give their views about proposals that could see major changes to acute hospital and community care services across Dorset.
If agreed, the changes will help Dorset to deliver its forward-looking five year plan for improving health and care services, which are published in the local Sustainability and Transformation Plan.
The Clinical Services Review was launched in response to major challenges which health and care face both in Dorset and across the rest of the country. These include:
- a growing population with more people living longer
- an increasing demand on services
- workforce shortages that will be difficult to fill
- variations in the quality of care
- a potential funding gap of at least £158m per year by 2020
Making the changes proposed in the CSR would mean high quality services would continue in Dorset for the future and more lives could be saved.
During the consultation, people will be asked for their views on proposals which have been developed by local doctors and health professionals, and representative groups of patients and the public.
These include changes to the larger hospitals in the county and bringing more care closer to home through the development of community services including new hubs.
Over the coming weeks there will be lots of opportunities to get involved and have a say with events being planned, thousands of consultation documents being available at venues throughout the county – including GP practices and hospitals – and the opportunity to complete the questionnaire online.
Throughout the consultation the latest updates will be given out via social media channels Twitter and Facebook.
Read more about the proposed changes in the consultation document.