Citizens across the United Kingdom (UK)
will have the opportunity to tell the Government what they want in the
future
from health and community services.
Your Health, Your Care, Your Say, a major public consultation exercise,
will get underway today with the first of four public engagement events
in Gateshead. Other similar events will take place in Leicester,
London and Plymouth over the next month and local events will be run
throughout the country by the NHS, Local Authorities and voluntary organisations.
This is the first exercise of its kind in this country and thousands
of people and hundreds of organisations around the country will take
part. Participants will be asked a number of questions about what they
want from community health and social care services in their everyday
lives.
The three questions that the public will be asked during the consultation
are:
- How can people look after themselves ?
How can we help you take care
of yourself and support you and your family in your daily lives ?
- When you and your family need help and support, how, when, where
and from whom do you want to get it ?
- How can we help you get the right services, when you need them,
and ensure your care and support is properly coordinated?
In addition
to the three questions, participants will be asked to debate other
topics and ideas. These include what can we do to
help older people
remain independent and stay in their own homes, how do we tackle
root causes of ill-health, and would this investment save the
NHS money in
the long run, should people be allowed to register with a family
doctor near their home and workplace and how do we ensure continuity
of care
with this approach. Marking the start of the consultation Patricia Hewitt said:
" This exercise is a chance for us to see democracy in action and
really listen to what people want and what they don't want. More than
five million people in England live more than 10 miles from a hospital
and around 90% of all the contact that people have with the NHS and care
services takes place in the community. It therefore makes sense for us
to focus our attention on these services and ask the public for ideas
on what they should look like in the future.
_ People want to be given a greater
say in decisions about services that affect their lives, which is why
we are using this new approach
of democratic engagement to develop new policy. In addition to the regional
events, local organisations, such as local authorities, involved in providing
services will consult with patients, users, carers, the public and staff
through their own events. I am also extending the reach of this engagement
further with an online questionnaire that I would like to see as many
people as possible submit."
The consultation will run for eight weeks and ideas from the sessions
with the public will feed into a ‘Citizens' Day’ for 1,000
participants to be held in Birmingham on 29 October.
News is included
on this website to inform visitors about current health issues, but not
to endorse
any particular view or activity. Material in this news item
was first released by UK Department of Health on 14th September
2005. For further information, please visit
their
website using the link below. |
