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Closer To Home

NHS Cumbria Primary Care Trust

Closer to Home – Our proposals in the North

Consultation on our proposals in the North of the County has finished and implementation is under way.

This page tells you what people said to us and how we have responded.

Our Vision

Under the proposals more health care would be provided in the community and local health services would be managed by family doctors – creating professional-led services which truly meet the needs of local people.

As well as being more effective, efficient and convenient for local people, moving health services closer to people's homes would mean:

  • Health services designed to meet the needs of each local area, making them more responsive to patients
  • People with long-term conditions would have more control over their lives and spend less time in hospital
  • New and updated facilities in the community which are easy to access
  • More care and treatment at home and in community settings would reduce travel times and reduce anxiety of being treated away from home as well as making it easier for friends and family to visit
  • Less disruption to people's home and social lives as a result of shorter stays in hospital and more local services
  • Better and faster access to specialised hospital care
  • More highly-trained healthcare teams to provide support in the community

Summary of our proposals

We published our proposals for bringing care closer to home in the North of the County in September 2007. The proposals were based around five key themes:
  • Our vision for the future
  • The future of emergency care in North Cumbria
  • A new future for our community hospitals
  • How the acute hospitals would change
  • How our plans add up financially.

The consultation on these proposals ran for 14 weeks from 27 September to 1 February 2008. NHS Cumbria commissioned the Centre for Health Research and Practice Development at the University of Cumbria to undertake an analysis of the consultation responses. This is set out in their “Final Report for the Public Consultation on the ‘Closer to Home’ proposals”.

NHS Cumbria Board then met on 13 March to consider the consultation responses and make decisions on the way forward.

Nearly all the people and organisations who responded to the consultation supported our vision for bringing care closer to home. There was also strong support for placing doctors at the heart of decision making and bringing a new lease of life to our community hospitals. A number of people did express concerns with certain parts of the proposals, such as the bed numbers in the acute hospitals and the proposals for emergency and trauma services.

We have produced a summary report "Closer to Home: Our Response to the Consultation Process". This sets out the original proposals, key issues raised through the consultation and the final NHS Cumbria Board decisions. It is available through the links on the right hand side, along with the University of Cumbria Analysis report and the original consultation documents. The full NHS Cumbria Board papers are available on the main NHS Cumbria web site

Throughout the week commencing 7 January there were a series of clinical meetings to discuss the main areas of concern arising in the Closer to Home consultation. Documents relating to these meetings can be downloaded below.

Letter to GPs and consultants from NHS Cumbria and North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Notes of meetings:

Emergency and complex surgery

Trauma and accident and emergency

Elderly care

Palliative care

Bed numbers