Improving services, improving health Health care is changing with the focus switching from hospitals to the community. Not many years ago, even the simplest diagnostic tests meant a trip to a hospital clinic. Now, many screening services are offered at your local GP surgery or somewhere much closer to your home. There’s also a greater emphasis on keeping people well and helping them to manage long term conditions, so they don’t need to be rushed to hospital as an emergency. We also encourage people to ‘Choose Well’ and help them to understand the options when someone needs to get medical help quickly out of surgery hours – a trip to A&E should be the last resort, not the first. We’ve already laid good foundations during 2011-12, and here are just some of the examples of where we’re improving services and improving health.
Seeing a GP – getting better Measuring the quality of your GP services Local people are finding it easier than ever to get GP care as two GP Practices in Ovenden and Showery Bridge opened, offering additional access to medical services for Calderdale residents. Both practices are open from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday (including Bank Holidays) and 8am to 1pm on Saturdays. 80% of the GP practices in Calderdale continue to offer appointments during extended hours. The new local GP contract, which contains key performance targets to make sure patients receive the highest quality care at their GP surgery, is now fully operational, with practices measured on how easy it is for patients to get appointments, care for patients with long term conditions and childhood vaccinations/immunisations. Enhanced services mean that you can go to your GP for a wider range of services rather than going to another clinic or a hospital. This has received a positive 93% uptake within Calderdale. And all our GP practices take part in the Quality Outcomes Framework (QOF) which covers a range of clinical and non-clinical topics to make sure that patients with a wide range of conditions are identified and monitored.
Caring for your eyes DRAFT NHS Calderdale Annual Report
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