Public urged to have a say on health changes (From Western Telegraph)

Public urged to have a say on health changes

1:00pm Sunday 21st October 2012 in News

Pembrokeshire residents are being urged to continue their involvement in Hywel Dda Health Board's future healthcare consultation as the deadline for submissions looms.

The health board is reminding people that the Your Health Your Future – Consulting Our Communities consultation document and questionnaire is available to any individual who requests it, through a number of different formats.

It is also discouraging the use of prefilled forms and questionnaires.

The documents are available online, in hard copy for everyone who contacts them directly and from community locations such as hospitals, GP surgeries and from libraries.

Chris Wright, director of corporate services, said: “There has been a lot of response so far, particularly from people in Pembrokeshire, and we would urge local people who haven’t formally fed back their views to do so in these final weeks.

“We want to ensure the integrity of this exercise and for that reason would discourage use of pre-populated forms and encourage people to submit their own answers and comments based on their own opinions.

“It would also be inappropriate, and unreasonable, for us to hand out large numbers of consultation documents and questionnaires to a single individual, interest group or organisation as we want to ensure that every voice has equal representation.

“I would like to reassure people that they can feedback their views online, or request a hard copy by contacting us directly either by email, freepost, or by leaving a message on our dedicated answer machine.”

The deadline for submissions is October 29th.

A public events will be held on October 24th, at Kilgetty Community Centre, from 2pm to 7.30pm.

Visit www.hywelddahb.wales.nhs.uk/Consultation or write to Opinion Research Services Freepost (SS1018), PO Box 530, Swansea, SA1 1ZL with your views.

Or write to the health board at FREEPOST HYWEL DDA HEALTH BOARD, email hyweldda.engagement@wales.nhs.uk or leave your comments on the telephone answer machine 01437 771232.

Those who would prefer to receive paper copies of the information and questionnaire can request these by calling the answer machine service and leaving a message on 01437 771232, writing to FREEPOST HYWEL DDA HEALTH BOARD or emailing hywel dda.engagement@wales.nhs.uk