NHS Thanet CCG Thanet District Council Street Margate Kent, CT9 1XZ Tel: 03000 424615 20 May 2015 An open letter to the people of east Kent Over the last couple of our local papers have carried worrying headlines about the possibility of the east Kent hospitals trust changing emergency care and, perhaps, centralising the most high-risk procedures in one centre. We chair the clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) for east Kent which have the job of planning and paying for most local health services. Our aim is to make sure that everyone in our areas who needs healthcare receives safe, high-quality care. This is in a context where GPs, nurses and consultants are a limited resource; the NHS in east Kent does not always find it easy to recruit despite the advantages of our part of the world; demand for healthcare, especially for frail elderly people, continues to grow; and money is tight. Nonetheless, in the past two years, since the CCGs came into being, we have made real strides. We have worked with NHS and social care colleagues to: Begin introducing a much more joined-up approach to community care for people across east Kent, so that district nurses, social care and mental health staff work in single teams. This means patients only having to tell their story once, and staff working together behind the scenes to improve their care. Improve help for people dialling 999 or attending A&E so they are supported at home by community teams whenever possible and admitted to hospital only if there is no alternative. We plan to have a local team handling NHS 111 calls from next spring which will be integrated with the GP out of hour’s service, so all calls for help will be dealt with by the same team of people.
NHS Thanet CCG Thanet District Council Street Margate Kent, CT9 1XZ Tel: 03000 424615 20 May 2015 An open letter to the people of east Kent Over the last couple of our local papers have carried worrying headlines about the possibility of the east Kent hospitals trust changing emergency care and, perhaps, centralising the most high-risk procedures in one centre. We chair the clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) for east Kent which have the job of planning and paying for most local health services. Our aim is to make sure that everyone in our areas who needs healthcare receives safe, high-quality care. This is in a context where GPs, nurses and consultants are a limited resource; the NHS in east Kent does not always find it easy to recruit despite the advantages of our part of the world; demand for healthcare, especially for frail elderly people, continues to grow; and money is tight. Nonetheless, in the past two years, since the CCGs came into being, we have made real strides. We have worked with NHS and social care colleagues to: Begin introducing a much more joined-up approach to community care for people across east Kent, so that district nurses, social care and mental health staff work in single teams. This means patients only having to tell their story once, and staff working together behind the scenes to improve their care. Improve help for people dialling 999 or attending A&E so they are supported at home by community teams whenever possible and admitted to hospital only if there is no alternative. We plan to have a local team handling NHS 111 calls from next spring which will be integrated with the GP out of hour’s service, so all calls for help will be dealt with by the same team of people.
An%20open%20letter%20to%20the%20people%20of%20east%20Kent.docx