What is the future for NHS services in Wiltshire?

Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group is led by local GPs. We plan and pay for the majority of NHS services that you use across the county.  Over the next five years, we know that demand for NHS services in Wiltshire will continue to increase but the money we have available to spend on these services will not increase at the same rate.

Modern advances in healthcare are helping people to live for longer than ever before which is a cause for celebration. However, this does mean that the demand for NHS services from the over-65s is expected to increase significantly over the coming years.  As a result, the CCG needs to adapt the way we provide NHS services so that they better meet the needs of our ageing population.

How will we meet this challenge?

The CCG has developed a Five Year Plan to enable us to respond to this challenge. Our plan sets out how we can continue to provide high quality but affordable health services in Wiltshire between now and 2019. We won’t be doing it alone either. Our key partners like Wiltshire Council, GP surgeries, local hospitals and other NHS providers are vital to the success of the plan.

It will mean some major changes to the shape of health care services in Wiltshire. Our vision is that health and social care services should support and sustain independent living and as the organisation responsible for designing and commissioning those services, we are keen to make them both affordable and the best possible for local people.

Our model for the future of health care in Wiltshire is based on three key principles:

  1. Encourage and support Wiltshire residents to take on more responsibility for their own health and wellbeing
  2. Provide fair access to a high quality and affordable system of care for the greatest number of people
  3. Provide less care in hospitals and more care at home or in the community

To achieve these aims we will need to change the way in which we spend our budget.  We will:

  1. Spend more money on health education and prevention to help people take more personal responsibility for their health and wellbeing
  2. Spend more money to improve community care and increase the range of services provided in a local setting
  3. As a result, we would need to spend proportionately less money on providing bed-based care in hospital

We are going to split Wiltshire up into 20 clusters of approximately 20,000 people. Each cluster will have an integrated team of GP surgeries, community nurses and therapists together with social worker support which will work together to ensure that we have a more joined up system of health and social care.

How can you get more involved?

The CCG has already been carrying out a wide-ranging consultation about our Five Year Plan across the county and this has included public meetings, outreach events, and presentations to a variety of organisations.  You may have been involved in one of these events?

Over the next few months the CCG will be giving presentations at the 18 Area Boards across the county.  Each Area Board is planning a health fair with lots of different stalls for you to visit followed by presentations from the CCG and Wiltshire Council about our plans for improving health and social care.  To find out the date of the Health Fair in your area please visit www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/areaboards/healthfairs

We hope you can join us for your local Area Board Health Fair but if you are not able to attend then you can find out more about the CCG’s plans at http://www.wiltshireccg.nhs.uk/

If you’d like to talk to someone at the CCG then you can email WCCG.info@nhs.net or call 01380 728899