Cardiac services reconfiguration
The NHS Trusts that manage our hospitals in Lancashire and South Cumbria have been working together with the Integrated Care Board (ICB) to look at how cardiac services can be improved.
Our aim is for everyone to receive the highest quality of care and to access a full range of services no matter where they live.
National guidance recommends moving to a network model for services, which other areas of the country already have in place.
A network model would mean hospital teams working more closely together to share expertise and workload. It may in fact result in some consultations or interventions being carried out in a patient’s local acute hospital or even in the community rather than needing to travel to a major centre.
Overall, the clinical benefits for patients through the establishment of a collaborative ‘Provider Network’ could be immense. Through better collaboration the workforce will be more integrated and resilient - absorbing surges in demand, being able to work in partnership, communicating best practice, and sharing new skills more easily. Patients could see:
- Shorter waiting times for appointments with consultants
- Faster diagnostic test results
- Earlier discharge from hospital and care at home
- More experienced staff resulting in better care.
Before we begin to work on how best to create the network, we do need more information about how our patients experience the current services and what the affects might be from any future changes. We also want to know about any issues or challenges that changes might present to patients, so that we can reduce the chances of them happening as we plan for the future.
Any proposed changes will be the subject of future engagement.