Priority 2: Improving access to health and care services and increasing trust and confidence
What this means to me
I will find it easier to access the health and care services that I need wherever I live across Coventry and Warwickshire. Those services will feel more like one service, I will have more say over the services I receive and greater trust in their quality, effectiveness and safety.
Context
The NHS was founded to provide universal access to health care. We know that the pandemic had an impact on access and also on trust and confidence in services. We also know the two are related and both have a strong link to and impact on health inequalities.
This strategy has been informed by extensive engagement with people and patient and community groups across Coventry and Warwickshire. People told us that we need:
- greater access and quality of access and fairness of treatment for all
- more access to health and care services in our communities
- greater access to specialists
- more access to screening and diagnostic services locally
- clearer information about how to access services and support for those that face challenges accessing them.
One of the greatest strengths of our health and care services is their accessibility. We know that this is as important as ever and that different people and groups face different barriers and challenges accessing services. We also know that trust in key health and care services is variable across groups and communities and from service to service. We want to tackle this variability and raise levels of trust across the board.
Our mission over the next five years is to improve access to and trust in health and care services across Coventry and Warwickshire. When we say health and care services, we mean this in the widest possible sense, including those such as housing and active living that impact wellbeing, and those provided by the community and voluntary sector.
We are facing greater demand for health and care services, with an ageing and growing population, and like everywhere else across the NHS, a significant elective waiting list to work through. At the same time, we are facing continued financial pressures. We need to find more and better ways to work together, involving people and communities in this as well as partners such as the fire service, police and our many amazing voluntary and community groups.
There are four key areas which we need to focus on in order to improve access and trust, informed by our engagement. They are:
- personalised care
- improving access to services especially primary care
- meaningfully engaging people, patients and communities
- making services more effective through collaboration and integration.