Are there things you’re unhappy about with the NHS? The NHS is asking the public to participate in a national public consultation online where you get to voice what you think should change in the NHS. Healthwatch Gateshead and Healthwatch Newcastle are hosting discussion groups where people can meet up and discuss their concerns with the NHS to make sure all voices are heard.
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00:00So this is the biggest ever discussion about the NHS that the
00:04government have started and it's about the future and what the NHS is going to
00:09look like in 10 years time. It's really important that everybody has a say in it
00:13because they're providing three areas that they want to shift forward for the
00:18NHS. One of them is to move all services that they can from the hospitals into
00:24the community. So that's things like community diagnostics like the new
00:28centre they've got, the Metro Centre, where you can go and have blood tests
00:32and scans done. So that's a good shift for patients but for some patients they
00:37prefer things to be in hospital. This is an opportunity to have your say. Another
00:42shift that they're talking about is becoming more digitally enabled. So that's
00:47things like the NHS app, being sent things through email and also having your
00:52records no longer on paper but actually digital. Now that's a really good thing
00:57for some people and for people who are tech savvy that's something that people
01:01would welcome but there's a lot of people who don't have access to data or
01:06can't afford internet so we don't want people left behind so we need to hear
01:11those views too. And the final bit is about the shift from just treating
01:18people to actually having an NHS that prevents people from being sick. So what
01:23the government's done is they've created a website called changenhs.uk
01:29and they've got an open public survey and questionnaire on there where people
01:36can fill in their views and let the government know what they think the NHS
01:41needs to look like in 10 years time, what would make their lives easier. Across the
01:45region the health watchers are all doing focus groups and discussion groups and
01:50those focus groups are about two hours long and we're just asking people to
01:54come along and have a discussion and tell us their views on the NHS.