Let’s help make Sheffield healthier!

Who are we and what do we do?

NHS Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) is the organisation with responsibility for commissioning (buying) many of the healthcare services for Sheffield.

As we approach our third year and the second year of our five year plan we would like to ask you what you think we should concentrate on as we look at refreshing our plans for 2015 onwards.

Our aim is to make the greatest improvements in the health of people in Sheffield by doing the right thing and concentrating on several big projects. This may mean that we need to consider changing the way that services are delivered or may need to focus our attention on something different.

Dr Zak McMurray, Sheffield GP and Clinical Director at Sheffield CCG said “We want to support people in Sheffield to have a better understanding of health issues. We would like to invite you to get involved and contribute towards the development of ‘Commissioning Intentions’ for local health services in your community.”

If evidence and patient experience suggest that a service could be delivered in a way that would make better outcomes, we will work with patients, carers and the public to shape how that service looks in the future.

What have we done so far?

Some of our highlights from the past year include:

• Provided quick access to speech therapy services for children who need them
• Developed a cancer survivorship programme to help people affected by cancer get the support they need to live a life as full as possible after a cancer diagnosis
• Opened new intensive support service for people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour
• Developed a care planning programme to help people with long term health conditions work with their nurse/doctor to manage and make their own decisions about their care

What challenges do we still face?

• Most health services in Sheffield are seeing more patients and a lot of  hospitals remain under significant pressure
• There are a lot of health differences in Sheffield including a difference in life expectancy in the more disadvantaged areas of the city.
• There are new local health priorities such as liver disease and sight loss

What do we need your help with?

We would now like to offer you the opportunity to give your opinions on the local projects set out below and whether we are right to focus on these. We also want to know if there are any projects you think we should stop doing because they’re not effective or are poor value and what things you think we should continue to do.

Working with the City Council:

• Increase care planning, which is an agreement between you and your health professional (or social services) to help you manage your health day to day
• Test the “Keeping People Well in Their Communities” model proposed in our integrated commissioning plans, which are new services to support people who might need health or social care, to help them stay independent and well in their communities
• Ensure that people get better support and recovery services as an alternative to needing a stay in hospital and to help people get back home more quickly when they do need a stay in hospital
• Ensure that health and social care services are joined up where appropriate
• Agree a new approach to ‘Early Years’, building on the ‘Best Start’ work which aims to provide all children with the best possible start in life.

Working with NHS England:

• Buy primary care services (GP, dentist, optician) and specialist services together
• Work with other providers and organisations in the city to provide appropriate care services

CCG specific priorities:

• Set up the contracts and changes to achieve improvements in musculoskeletal services.[1]

• There are significant health inequalities in Sheffield including a difference in life expectancy in the most deprived areas of the city of 8.7 years for men and 7.3 years for women. We want to ensure that services we buy contribute to reducing this
• Transform Outpatient Services
• Redesign urgent care services, ensuring that patients are treated and supported as well as possible when they need urgent care, at home wherever possible, with hospital stays no longer than necessary. 

We would now like to ask the following questions:

1. Do you agree that the projects we have identified should be priorities for us? (Please state why)
2. Is there anything about focusing on these projects that concerns you?
3. Do you feel that these plans are too ambitious, about right or not ambitious enough? Please share your thoughts.
4. What will these changes mean for you?

Please email your answers to these questions (by 19 January 2015) and if you are interested in being involved in developing projects in 2015/16 please contact sheccg.engagementactivity@nhs.net.

[1] The musculoskeletal system is the organ system that gives you the ability to move using your muscular and skeletal systems. This provides form, support, stability, and movement to the body.

Our full Commissioning Intentions document, with detailed plans, can be read here: Commissioning Intentions 2014-19.