Serco invites public to find out more about community health in Suffolk

The first of a series of "question time" events designed to give people the chance to find out more about the way community health services will be managed in Suffolk in the future will take place next week.

Serco will hold the first question and answer session about the future delivery of Suffolk Community Healthcare's services at Kesgrave Community Centre next Thursday (14 March).

Open to everyone, the event will be hosted by senior staff from Serco, which provides the majority of Suffolk Community Healthcare's services. It will give people the chance to find out more about the way NHS community healthcare is being remodelled in the county to improve the services which patient receive.

Planned changes, which will be introduced gradually over the coming months, include:

• Centralising administrative activity in a single 24-hour a day care coordination centre. The centre will give carers and GPs a single point of contact for all enquiries relating to community healthcare services and will be staffed by local people and based in Ipswich.
• Introducing mobile technology for frontline clinical staff to ensure they spend less time on admin and more time with patients. The aim is to increase the amount of time people like district nurses and physiotherapists typically spend with patients from under 40% of their working day to over 50%.
• Extending routine service delivery hours from eight hours a day (8am - 4pm) to 12 hours a day (8am - 8pm) to make them more convenient for patients.

The event in Kesgrave will take place between 7pm and 9pm. A further eight events will take place across the county over the coming weeks, with details publicised as soon as dates and venues have been confirmed.

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