A GROUND-BREAKING opportunity is being offered for people in Wigtownshire to fundamentally rethink approaches to health and social care.
Funding is now in place to bring Wigtownshire communities together with health and social care providers to jointly design the best possible approach to services – from the ground up.
June Watters, Wigtownshire Locality Manager for Dumfries and Galloway Health and Social Care, said: “There is no overstating just how significant this project is.
“This new project will build on work including the Wigtownshire Health and Social Care Locality Plan and the review of Galloway Community Hospital which has already led to improvements. But this new project will allow us to look more broadly, and go much further.
“We face ongoing challenges in delivering health and social services in Wigtownshire, due to issues around recruitment, an increasingly ageing population and the sort of financial constraints which are being experienced nationally.
“And the new national GP contract will mean that some tasks carried out by doctors in general practice will soon become the responsibility of a wider multi-disciplinary team, bringing about improvements in patient care.”
June added: “Our ambition is to undertake a major piece of work which will see the Wigtownshire public, either as individuals or through community groups, fully engaged and working together with public bodies like the NHS and Dumfries and Galloway Council, the third sector and the independent sector.
“Together, we will develop an approach to designing care which makes the best use of all available resources to create sustainable, safe and effective health and social care that meets the specific needs of Wigtownshire. By working in this way, looking at the challenges and opportunities we face, it is also our hope and expectation that completely fresh ideas and approaches may emerge.”
Groundwork for the as-yet-untitled initiative now means that funding has been secured for the recruitment of an independent chairperson to oversee the project. This post will be publicly advertised in coming weeks. A project manager funded for at least two years will also be appointed to lead, manage and co-ordinate this programme, and to make sure that it works together with other innovations across Wigtownshire. These include:
- the CoH-Sync project, which has seen community groups invited to tender for delivery of two health and wellbeing centres in the region, with one in Stranraer.
- the region’s role in the five-year €8.7 million mPower project, which will see people aged 65 and above with long-term conditions helped to manage their own health and wellbeing, with people employed as ‘Community Navigators’ assisting in developing wellbeing plans connecting them to activities in their community as well as to new technology.
Penny Halliday is chair of the Integration Joint Board responsible for the delivery of health and social care services across Dumfries and Galloway.
Hailing the new project, Stranraer resident Penny said: “This is a very significant project, and one with huge potential to develop real benefits and completely change the way we approach the delivery of health and social care in Wigtownshire.
“There is an initial two-year timescale on the project, and we will be looking for the public to really get behind this, take up this chance to get involved, and shape where it goes. However, we expect to see real benefits quickly emerging from this work which we can start to implement immediately, where that’s appropriate and agreed.
“Ultimately, we want to establish a lasting, new approach of joint working and collaboration between our communities and public services which will continue to shape our approach to developing successful methods of health and social care delivery in Wigtownshire for years to come.”
Community groups and individuals are being invited to get involved at the earliest opportunity, as the project takes shape.
