Hywel Dda University Health Board has officially launched a new clinically-led engagement and listening exercise to ask local residents exactly what they want from their future NHS services.

‘Transforming Clinical Services’ will give people the chance to have their say on how they would like services to improve across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire. The exercise will run until September 15 this years and is the first stage of a longer term plan for change.

Dr Phil Kloer, Medical Director and Director of Clinical Services Strategy, said: “At the heart of Transforming Clinical Services is one question: ‘How can we design services to meet the future healthcare needs of our local population, and help drive population health improvement in Mid and West Wales.’ We face a range of challenges and recognise that currently services are not as good as we would want them to be. We feel strongly that our residents deserve the best possible care and support to lead healthier lives.

“We don’t want to assume we know best; we want to listen to our staff, patients and the public to understand what future improvements they want to see and then work together to achieve these over the next few years. This engagement exercise is the first step - we have not made any decisions, we want to hear everyone’s ideas, and to do this we have produced an ‘issues paper’ for people to read and consider as well as a questionnaire to share their feedback. We are also running a series of online sessions to find out what people think.”

Libby Ryan-Davies, Director of Transformation, said: “We all know that that health and care services are under pressure, and the problems we face in this particular area of Wales are familiar to us all. Whilst our staff work incredibly hard to offer fantastic care day in and day out, we need to be honest about the need to find new and better ways of providing care.

“We want to truly address the needs of our communities by stepping in early to prevent ill health in the first place and ensuring that when people need our help they can get the right care quickly and get back to their normal lives. Our Transforming Clinical Services programme will be led by our healthcare professionals who see patients each day and have a clear understanding of how things feel on the frontline. We will link together the views, knowledge and experience of our staff, patients, carers, the public and other stakeholders together to understand collectively what we do well, what we should do more of, and what doesn’t work well.”

Dr John Morgan, Chair of Hywel Dda Community Health Council, said: “We are pleased to work with the Health Board on this engagement and listening exercise. As the independent patient watchdog, we know the health needs of the public are changing. Like the rest of Wales, it’s not uncommon for people to tell us they’ve struggled to receive the care they need. The Health Board tells us it’s sometimes difficult to provide it.

“We believe that by working with the Health Board it will give us an opportunity to make a lasting, positive change for local people. We’re pleased to see that the Health Board is committed to working closely with the public to develop its plans because their voices need to be heard. We hope that people will get involved, whether they talk to the Health Board or talk to us.”

Bernardine Rees, Chair of Hywel Dda University Health Board, said: “For all of our successes, we continue to face the same challenges time and again so what is needed is a bold and ambitious longer term plan to give us all the chance to really think differently. Most importantly we want to work together with local people so that they have the opportunity to shape and influence these plans right from the very start.

“Nothing has been decided and we are still in the early stages of our thinking, which is why I would strongly encourage everyone to take the opportunity to have their say. We have shared all that we have tried to do to improve the sustainability of our services, but now we need to develop a really clear view - taking on board every view, however bold - on what our part of the NHS needs to do over the coming years to really make a difference for our communities.”

To take part, residents are asked to read our issues paper and answer an accompanying questionnaire. An easy read version is also available.

Documents can be accessed or requested by:

Visiting the website: www.hywelddahb.wales.nhs.uk/tcs

Writing to Freepost Hywel Dda Health Board

Calling on 01554 899 056 (please leave a message for us)

You can also complete our questionnaire online at: www.hywelddahb.wales.nhs.uk/tcs