Open letter shows progress in reopening health services ahead of winter
Some services that were halted due to Clovid-19 will begin again including 1,500 outpatient appointments, cervical and breast screening and health visitors for new mothers.
Operating theatres, wards and clinics are getting back into their pre-Covid routines according to the letter. Healthwatch would like to hear your experiences of hospital and clinic appointments, please go to the share your views section of the website.
However extra safety precautions to stop the spread of the virus mean there are fewer beds in local hospitals than before, and space in waiting areas is limited.
Waiting times have grown as a result of routine procedures being paused at the outset of the pandemic and everyone is working hard to address this while ensuring access to services for all.
Healthwatch wants to hear from everyone about their experiences of accessing services during these challenging times to feed back to providers – which will help future planning.
The open letter has been put together by Healthier Together – the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP).
The STP brings together 10 local health and care organisations; the clinical commissioning group, local authorities and health providers and works together to shape the future of health and care in the Bristol, North Somerset and South Glos area. Click here for full letter here Open Letter from Healthier Together
There is a list of translations in Urdu, Punjabi, Somali, Polish, Cantonese, Bengali and Arabic too.
Download a copy of the open letter in Punjabi
Download a copy of the open letter in Somali
Download a copy of the open letter in Polish
Download a copy of the open letter in Cantonese
As a group of local NHS and care organisations working on your behalf, our focus is now to get services back to their pre-pandemic levels ahead of winter. This won’t be easy - coronavirus has changed the way we run services and how many people we can see in person at any one time. The new and important measures in place to keep everyone safe from the virus mean that we need to work differently.
