Message ‘re urgent healthcare facilities from Herts Healthwatch
In mid August, Geoff Brown, our CEO facilitated a public meeting to hear views about the proposal to have overnight closure of the Urgent Care Centre at the QE2.
East and North Herts CCG are wanting to make the move so that the resources of the NHS can be used wisely. The Urgent Care Centre is much quieter between 10pm and 8am than it is in the daytime and all services cannot be provided overnight. Other services such as 111 and access to GPs overnight provide some alternatives as well as A&E for more serious matters. East and North Herts Hospital Trust supports the decision
Concerns raised by members of the public included:
- Whether the closure indicated that services are being reduced at QE2 generally. (This is not the case and more services will be moving to the QEII site)
- Whether the proposals were short term and didn’t reflect the increasing population of the area over the next few years
- How would the CCG and Trust make people aware of alternatives and publicise these
Views are being gathered anonymously through an independent market research company which will review the questionnaires and other stakeholder feedback to produce a report for the CCG’s Governing Body to inform their decision making in October.
