Medway and Swale NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups and NHS Medway Foundation Trust need your help to improve outpatients’ facilities. They want to transform outpatients at Medway Hospital.

If you or a close family member currently use outpatient services at Medway Hospital, please complete the patient survey.

The survey closes on 11th November 2019 and will be used to help find out what needs to be improved and what is working  well. They plan to repeat the survey in 2020.

Outpatient transformation

The current NHS outpatient model across England has been described as “obsolete”.  In the past ten years, the number of appointments has doubled, meaning they need to address the services to ensure they are meeting the needs of the patients.

The Medway Model is aimed at bringing more services out into community settings, improving how strands of the system work better together and making better use of resources.

The aim is to change the way hospital appointments are delivered in the future. This might involve moving some outpatients’ services into community locations, supporting patients to have more control over their care or making more use of new technology.

So far people have said they are sometimes waiting too long for appointments and that they want more access to clinical support between appointments so they can manage their own conditions better without reaching crisis.

What are outpatient services?

Outpatients are hospital appointments which do not involve an overnight stay. As a patient you are normally referred via your GP but you may be referred via another service. You have the right to choose which hospital to go to and which consultant-led team will be in charge of your treatment.

In 2017/2018 Medway Foundation Trust had 325,000 outpatient attendances.

Services which will be included in this programme include:

  • Cardiology
  • Ear Nose and Throat
  • Gastroenterology services
  • Gynaecology services
  • Haematology
  • Neurology
  • Respiratory
  • Rheumatology
  • Urology

Find out more: www.medwayccg.nhs.uk/getting-involved/involvement-projects/medway-and-swale-outpatient-redesign