A comprehensive 11-week public engagement programme supported Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent Integrated Care Board (ICB) to shape a more efficient and patient-focused urgent and emergency care strategy.

Background

Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent ICB reviewed its urgent and emergency care (UEC) services to ensure they meet the needs of local patients.

The ICB has developed a strategy aimed to support people to look after their own health using a wide range of services that work together to provide good healthcare when people need it, reducing the need for avoidable emergency admissions.

The strategy aimed to introduce urgent treatment centres to reduce pressure on urgent and emergency care services such as A&E.

Action

Our Communications and Engagement team planned and delivered 11 weeks of public engagement to:

• tell people about the local strategy for UEC services, explain all the services available and how the introduction of urgent treatment centres (UTCs) can benefit patients
• engage over proposals for areas where sites do not meet the criteria for a UTC, and to hold community conversations to understand the needs in their local area.

The engagement was carefully planned and managed, and we produced an events calendar with venues, dates, times, facilitating staff, equipment needed and a carefully executed handover of materials plan for team members located across the North West and Midlands.

Facilitating team members were briefed before events so they had all the information prior to attending. Patients and the public were also sent information beforehand and for locality meetings were asked to fill out a registration form. All participants were asked to complete the survey.

The engagement was conducted at the following:

10 locality meetings ​across the county – with a total of 151 attendees ​

27 community groups covering a wide range of demographics, including refugees and migrants, carers of people with learning disabilities and a PPG meeting

26 site visits ​to hospital receptions, waiting areas, outpatients’ departments and MIUs across the county. Staff handed out information and engaged with patients

3 visits to retirement villages to talk to residents and record their experiences and feedback.

Through the engagement, we also gathered feedback to:

• explore the public’s understanding of the difference between urgent and emergency healthcare
• understand which services people would use for urgent and/or emergency illnesses and injuries
• find out which urgent and emergency care services people use, don’t use or were unaware of.

Impact

The above engagement provided us with rich and diverse feedback that we collated, analysed and presented into a report of findings for the client.

We were able to create county-wide media attention via media releases, social media content and promotional materials. We encouraged press and media to attend meetings – supported by our media team – which in turn meant the topic featured in local TV, radio and print news.

Our report of findings presented several key themes that were determined from the in-depth analysis of survey responses, correspondence and event feedback.

For more information

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