Council and health partners approve recommendations to improve patient experience of attending minor procedures clinic

Last updated: 25/04/2013 Add to My Bookmarks Subscribe

A series of recommendations aimed at improving the experience of members of the public attending minor procedures and outpatients’ clinics in Cornwall have been approved by Cornwall Council, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust and the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust.

The recommendations, contained in a report from the Single Issue Panel set up by the Council’s Health and Adults Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee, are designed to enable as many patients as possible to be treated closer to home rather than having to travel long distances to district general hospitals and community hospitals. 

They include ensuring health staff consider issues such as post codes, mobility, age and the nearest local solution when making appointments as well as specific proposals to improve access to transport, informing patients of the Health Care Travel Cost scheme and parking arrangements, including reviewing parking charges in hospital owned car parks.

Members of the Minor Procedures and Outpatients Single Issue Panel, which was set up by the Council in January 2010, examined a wide range of issues relating to the policies and day to day practices of NHS Trusts and other organisations responsible for organising outpatient and minor procedure appointments for people in Cornwall.  These included the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust, Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, Plymouth Hospitals Trust, Northern Devon Hospitals Trust, Age UK, LINk and staff from Cornwall Council.

The terms of reference for the Panel included:

• examining access to outpatients and minor procedures clinics (minor procedure clinics are when people go into hospital for diagnostic tests or for day case surgery)
• reviewing minor procedures and outpatients clinics across the county
• reviewing the clinics offered outside Truro to see if they could be improved
• examining how well the facilities were being used, particularly those in outlying areas
• comparing the location of patient appointments with a patient’s postcode and age
• reviewing whether more appointments could be offered closer to where people live
• reviewing the current Choose and Book system to see if it could be improved to increase patient choice.

“Minor procedures and outpatients clinics form a very important part of our health service in Cornwall and we wanted to make sure that they were meeting the needs of local people“  said Chris Goninan, Chairman of the Single Issue Panel.  “Our review showed that the rural nature of Cornwall makes it very difficult for a number of people to access their district general hospitals and community hospitals, with long travel times and high transport and parking costs.   Some of our community hospitals are also underused for outpatient appointments."

“Our recommendations are designed to address these issues by encouraging hospital trusts to offer improved community experiences to all their residents and provide as many services as possible locally."

“I am delighted that both members of the Council’s Cabinet and members of the Primary Care Trust’s and Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust boards are supporting the recommendations and that work has already started on drawing up an action plan to ensure they are implemented as soon as possible.  It is by working together that positive differences can be made to services and I am confident that the enthusiasm and commitment of everyone involved in this work will ensure that these recommendations become a reality”.

The Chairman has expressed his thanks to all members of the Panel and , in particular, to Amanda Fisk, Acting Director of Commissioning and Strategic Development at the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust; Rachel Brooks, Service Planning Manager at the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust; Dr Peter Levin, whose report ‘ Getting to Hospital’ provided the background information and Roy Lee from LINk in Cornwall.

The recommendations set out in the report were formally approved by the Council’s Cabinet on 7 December, with the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Primary Care Trust accepting the findings at its meeting in October and the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust Board on 16 December.

Amanda Fisk, from the Primary Care Trust, said: "We welcome the work done by the panel to identify areas where we can improve services for patients.  Our priority is to move services as close to people's homes as possible and this review will help to inform our work on that."

Copies of the report and the recommendations have also been sent to the Secretary of State for Health; the South West Strategic Health Authority; the Boards of the Royal Cornwall, Plymouth and Northern Devon Hospitals Trusts; Cornwall’s six MPs, all GPs in Cornwall and Citizen Advice Bureau in Cornwall.

Story posted 4 January 2011