the BIG conversation

Welcome to the BIG conversation about healthcare with NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)

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* 1. If you needed to be seen by a healthcare professional, would you rather…

Travel further for a specialist appointment, but be seen quicker

Wait longer, but be seen locally

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* 2. Thinking about all of the services that we fund and the savings we need to make, would you rather…

We review all of our services and only keep the ones that have the greatest positive impact on the health of our community, while stopping others

We make smaller reductions to most of our services

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* 3. We spend millions of pounds on routine follow up appointments after a treatment or a procedure. If everything has gone well, do you think...

You should be seen face-to-face to be reassured that everything has gone well

You would be happy to have a telephone call or video call (such as Skype) with a health professional to follow-up how you are doing and go in to see the Doctor if there is any concern

In most cases, if there is no need for a follow up appointment, then you would be happy to be given a number to call if you had any concerns

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* 4. We spend £5.3 million on medications each year that could be bought over the counter rather than via a prescription. Often these medicines are cheaper to buy over the counter than it is to pay for a prescription. Given the constraints on NHS finances, do you think that…

We should only prescribe items that cannot be readily purchased over the counter to enable the money to be spent on other healthcare services

We should continue to prescribe anything people need and reduce other healthcare services

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* 5. Like many other areas we have busy A&E departments and sometimes we struggle to see the most urgent cases quickly. Do you think . . .

We should redirect people to other NHS services if you go to A&E and do not have a serious injury or illness that needs to be dealt with as an emergency

You should always be seen at A&E if you go there and you shouldn’t be turned away

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* 6. Research shows that by living a healthy lifestyle – for example not smoking, maintaining an active lifestyle and healthy weight, and not drinking too much alcohol – you can reduce your chances of suffering from a number of illnesses and diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Given these facts, do you believe…

You should be set targets to improve your own health, such as stopping smoking, reducing your weight or alcohol consumption, before having planned operations

You should be able to access whatever services you need, even if you do not make lifestyle changes that would help to manage your condition better

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* 7. Due to medical advances and people living longer and with more complex diseases we are seeing a big increase in the numbers of hospital referrals and planned operations. There are a number of reviews into how waiting lists are managed. Do you think . . .

If it is clinically safe to do so, you would be happy to wait longer than 18 weeks for a procedure or appointment so that more urgent patients can be seen first? If so, how long would you be prepared to wait...

26 weeks?

36 weeks?

50 weeks?

If a Doctor thinks you need to be seen, then you should be seen as soon as possible

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* 8. Looking at how we use technology, would you prefer to…

Have the opportunity to access healthcare services faster via technology, for example telephone appointments with your GP or live chat with a trained healthcare professional

See a named medical professional face to face, but have to wait longer for that appointment

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* 9. When you feel unwell, but it is not an emergency, and you need to see someone to talk about it, would you:

Like one place to contact for advice and treatment which can book you an urgent appointment with the right service, within two days or sooner if need be

Prefer to use the services you know are available and see how quickly you can be seen, such as A&E, Minor Injury Units, Urgent Care Centres, GP out of hours or GP urgent appointments

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* 10. Nearly eight million hospital appointments were missed across the country in 2017/18. Each hospital outpatient appointment costs around £120, which means almost £1 billion worth of appointments were missed - the equivalent of 257,000 hip replacements or 990,000 cataract operations. Almost 1.2 million GP hours were wasted because people did not turn up to their appointment - that's the equivalent of 600 GPs working full time for a year. Do you think...

The NHS should get better at reminding people to attend, using automatic reminder systems wherever possible

The NHS should get tougher on people who frequently miss appointments, unless they are vulnerable or have exceptional reasons for doing so

These things happen and the NHS should be flexible enough to manage this

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* 11. Do you have any other ideas or insights you’d like to share with us?

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* 12. Finally, to understand who has given their views, we would like to collect some details. 
 
Any information provided in this section will only be used by Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group for the purpose of understanding who has responded. 
 
Can you tell us which of the following age bands you belong to?

16 - 29

30 - 44

45 - 59

60 - 74

75 +

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* 13. How would you describe your ethnic background?

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* 14. Finally, please could you tell us the first part of your postcode?

Thank you for taking the time to complete this questionnaire. 