RESIDENTS have been given extra time to give their views on the future of urgent care services across Worcestershire.

The deadline has been extended for a further three weeks until Wednesday, April 9 following feedback from Worcestershire’s Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee who wanted to see the timescale for engagement lengthened.

NHS organisations across Worcestershire have jointly produced a draft Urgent Care Strategy, which set out how the local NHS proposes to improve urgent care services.

The strategy looks at how urgent care services will be delivered in the future, to best meet the needs of Worcestershire’s population.

Included within the strategy are plans to improve Accident and Emergency services, in particular through the development of Urgent Care Centres where hospital doctors and GPs will work alongside each other to provide a new service.

It proposes plans to improve Minor Injury Units through closer working arrangements with the main Accident and Emergency departments and local GPs.

The strategy also proposes not to continue with the ‘walk-in’ element of the Worcester Walk-in Health Centre when the current contract expires in August as NHS leaders believe this service in particular will no longer be required with the other improvements in place.

Dr Jonathan Wells, clinical lead for NHS Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG, said: “The changes set out in this strategy are hugely important for the future of urgent care services in the local area.

“To ensure that local urgent care services are as effective as possible, some changes need to be made to how they are currently provided.

“We’re very keen for residents to have their say on the plans. By listening to what our patients tell us we are able to more closely shape these plans to local needs and ensure that we provide the best range of local urgent care services.”

For more information or to comment on the draft strategy, visit redditchandbromsgroveccg.nhs.uk/get-involved/urgent-care.

There are other ways to get involved in the conversation, including on Twitter by using #urgentcareworcs or by emailing ccgcomms@worcestershire.nhs.uk.