Published on: 15 October 2018

The NHS across South Tyneside and Sunderland is inviting patients, members of the public and healthcare staff to a series of drop-in roadshows over the coming weeks to find out more about Phase Two of the Path to Excellence programme.

From Saturday 13 October and over the next eight weeks, the NHS will be out and about visiting local communities, speaking to patients using local hospitals and healthcare services and attending a series of key stakeholder meetings to help people understand why local hospital services must change for the future.

People across South Tyneside and Sunderland are being encouraged to look out for the roadshows which will be widely promoted via social media and to come along to talk to the NHS and find out more about Phase Two of the Path to Excellence programme which involves the following key areas of hospital-based care:

  • Emergency care and acute medicine – the care provided when patients arrive at the Emergency Department or need emergency admission to hospital
  • Emergency surgery - the care provided when patients are admitted to hospital as an emergency and require an immediate operation
  • Planned care (including surgery and outpatients) – the care provided when patients are referred to hospital by their GP for a test, scan, treatment or operation.The ‘join our journey’ drop-in roadshows will take place at the dates and times below:

Date

Time

Location

Tuesday 16 October

10am – 4pm

South Shields Asda

Monday 22 October

10am – 3pm

 

Thursday 25 October

10am – 3pm

Main Outpatients,

Thursday 25 October

10am – 4pm

South Shields Asda

Monday 29 October

10am – 3pm

Kayll Road Entrance, Main Concourse

Sunderland Royal Hospital

Tuesday 30 October

9am – 5pm

 

Wednesday 31 October

9am – 5pm

 

Friday 2 November

10am – 3pm

Main Outpatients Entrance, Sunderland Eye Infirmary

Wednesday 7 November

9am – 5pm

Cleadon Park Primary Care Centre

Thursday 8 November

9am – 5pm

 

Friday 9 November

9am – 5pm

Washington Primary Care Centre

People will be able to find out more about why hospital services must change, hear about the draft ‘case for change’ and complete a short survey to let NHS know what is most important to them when accessing hospital services.

NHS partners have also launched a new video animation which explains some of the pressures and challenges facing local hospital services in South Tyneside and Sunderland and why services must change.The animation is available online at www.pathtoexcellence.org.uk along with a copy of the online survey.

During the eight week engagement period, on street teams will also be out and about in communities sharing information about Phase Two of Path to Excellence and encouraging as many people as possible to find out more and share their views or any ideas they have about how to improve NHS services.

Later in the year, NHS partners also plan to host a public ‘listening panel’ to actively seek feedback from key interested stakeholders on the draft ‘case for change’ and any ideas on how local healthcare leaders may be able to solve the challenges facing the NHS.

Commenting on the ‘join our journey’ engagement activity, Dr Shahid Wahid, clinical lead for the Path to Excellence programme and Medical Director at South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We are looking forward to getting out and about over the next few months to really engage with our local communities about the draft case for change and to help people understand why our hospital services must change for the future if we want to keep providing high quality patient care.

“Our staff in both South Tyneside and Sunderland have been working hard over the past year to begin thinking about how we may be able to address some of the very difficult challenges facing us and our draft ‘case for change’ document includes the views of hundreds of colleagues, as well as local patients, who have taken part in our early engagement work.

“It is really important that people understand why we cannot keep going as we are and why we must think innovatively to maximise our resources and the funding we have available to provide first class hospital services which are fit for the future.I would encourage everyone to get involved, read about the challenges we face or watch our new video animation and then let us know your views.”

Phase Two of the Path to Excellence is the final part of the clinical transformation of local hospital services which began in 2016.It is one of three main areas of work across the whole local health and care economy which will also look at how we transform care outside of hospital and help support our communities to stay fit and well by focussing on prevention.

Clinical design teams working together across South Tyneside and Sunderland are currently busy thinking through potential emerging ideas in order to create the best possible hospital services for the future.

These will be shared publicly as soon as possible and prior to any formal public consultation which is expected in summer 2019.This will allow the local NHS to capture all feedback from staff, stakeholders, as well as patients and the public, on any potential emerging ideas for change.

Leaders of all four NHS partner organisations are absolutely clear that both South Tyneside District Hospital and Sunderland Royal Hospital will continue to exist in the future and both will continue to play pivotal roles caring for local people. They stress, however, that changes are needed so that both hospitals can work much more effectively together to collectively serve both populations.