Health Matters Column: When will residents start to see a greater focus on community care again?
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to attend a Bedford Luton & Milton Keynes ICB Workshop with approximately 60+ health professionals who were all discussing the Future of Community and Mental Health Services following publication of the Government's Darzi report last year..
Being part of a minority group of public members we did have the opportunity to express our concerns about a perceived lack of any urgency to their proposed timetable to transfer more resources from hospitals back into Primary Care starting in the next 2 years, as part of a 10 year plan overall.
This will not provide much reassurance considering the concerns of the majority of communities in new housing developments and even established towns share throughout Central Bedfordshire since the cancellation of over 20+ Healthcare Infrastructure capital projects in January 2023.
But it was helpful to understand how the ICB’s is starting to approach the challenges regarding the barriers to fair and equal access to services and mental health, both of which are extremely relevant for our town and will help our understanding of how to present future campaigns and petitions.
The good news is that the additional rooms in the town's Health Clinic will be opening later this month and our group is also scheduled to meet both our MP and representatives from the Integrated Care Board to discuss what else is needed after the Clinic opens.
From our Groups perspective we do not see the Clinic as a final solution because its future success will be dependent on how well those rooms are utilized and staffed in conjunction with the level of new local housing developments and population increases the new transport infrastructure investments bring into the area ,even the proposed Universal Theme park will bring more visitors which will increase pressures on the region's hospitals.
We have yet to see any concrete plans for the next 2 - 5 years that reassures us that Health Infrastructure is an essential integral part of these inevitable population increases
Improving communications between communities and health authorities is not helped by the ongoing uncertainty around rumours that the Health Board could be combined with another ICB so keeping track of who we need to hold accountable is a work in progress.
As always we will keep you posted , if you would like to know more about the Leighton Linslade Health Provision Group -
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