Urgent care services in south east Essex – Have your say

(July 2015)

Residents of Castle Point and Rochford are being asked for their views to help plan the future of urgent care services in the area.  

NHS Castle Point and Rochford CCG has launched a public consultation on the future of St Luke's walk-in service in Southend and urgent care services in south east Essex.

The CCG has been working together with NHS Southend CCG, looking at urgent care services in south east Essex, and how they are provided. The contract to run the St Luke’s walk-in service in Southend – a service that is available to residents across south east Essex – expires in 2016. Both CCGs are therefore exploring options around its future to ensure urgent care services work as effectively as possible.

The consultation which runs until 11 September 2015 is inviting people to give their views on the CCG’s preferred option.

Dr Mike Saad, local GP and Chair of NHS Castle Point and Rochford CCG said: “Our priority is to ensure those who become unwell unexpectedly are assessed and treated at the right time and in the right place with quality care.  Currently, people in south east Essex access a number of different types of services across the locality which can be confusing for patients. Some of the services are expensive, replicate each other and don’t help to alleviate the pressure at local accident and emergency departments. We want to make things simpler for people, affordable and ensure that we can meet the growing demands for care in south east Essex.  We have developed proposals to address these issues.  We want to know what our population thinks about these proposals and what matters to them. I would encourage people to take part in our consultation and give us their feedback.”

The consultation document (which includes a feedback form) is available on the CCG’s website at:

www.castlepointandrochfordccg.nhs.uk

Hard copies are available on request by emailing angela.wongkeet@nhs.uk or ringing 01268 594562.

The CCG will also be holding public meetings where people can hear more about its proposals and ask any questions they may have. Details of these will be available on the CCG’s website.