Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Long Term Plan Report
The NHS Long-term plan
With growing pressure on the NHS – people living longer, more people living with long-term conditions, and lifestyle choices affecting people’s health – changes are needed to make sure everybody gets the support they need.
The Government has announced that the NHS budget will be increased by £20 billion a year. In January 2019, NHS England published an ambitious ten-year plan showing how this extra money will be spent. The plan sets out the areas that the NHS wants to make better.
What has Healthwatch Warwickshire done?
Healthwatch England created two surveys to help gather views about how health services are delivered locally – a general survey, and one for individuals living with specific conditions (such as Cancer, or Mental Health problems). Local Healthwatch all over the country ran engagement activities and shared the survey to gather your views and help make care better.
Healthwatch Warwickshire and Healthwatch Coventry shared the surveys, including going out to groups and community spaces. We also held several engagement activities on the topics of Technology in Healthcare and Proactive and Preventative Care.
What did we find?
Over 800 people told us about the changes they would like to see, which included:
- Better communication between patients and services
- Improvements in services for conditions such as Autism, Dementia and Mental Health conditions
- Having alternatives to online
- Improved transport to healthcare and short travel times
- More access to GP appointments
- Reduced waiting times for Doctors appointments, treatment and ongoing support
The General Survey illustrated that respondents in both Coventry and Warwickshire would like to see improved access to healthcare and would like to feel like they have been listened to. People continued to tell us that they have problems with transport and would like to have more choice when it comes to when and where they receive treatment.
The Specific Conditions survey told us that when it came to support, seeing a specialist, and getting good timely communications. People with cancer had more positive experiences than people with other conditions. Those with specific conditions, such as autism, clearly indicated that they felt waiting times were too long and that they received little or no support. A large proportion of respondents told us that waiting times and accessing ongoing support continued to be a problem
