Encouraging that public being consulted about new vision for Gosport

This is part of the plan to improve medical services and make them more accessible for everyone in the area.

The Vision For Gosport, which it is hoped to be fully implemented by 2018/19, is the result of a lot of background work involving the cooperation of numerous agencies.

The Gosport and Fareham Breathe Easy group was very fortunate to have Kerry Cooper from Southern Health NHS talk to us in depth about the ambitious plans and discuss them with us.

She was very well received and everyone seemed positive about the changes that she was putting forward.

It would be completely wrong to try to precis its content into a few sentences so I would urge people to look out and attend meetings explaining it. It is a measured response to try to help everyone in this area.

We were also fortunate at the same meeting to have had two members of the CCG talk with the group, asking what patients would like from the local health services instead of ‘this is what the clinicians think patients should have’.

It was an open and frank forum which evoked a lot of discussion.

The CCG will be approaching other groups of patients with the same question to try to gauge what, if any, common themes can be usefully introduced by them to benefit the whole community.

I find it very encouraging that the CCG and Southern Health are now being seen more by the general public and engaging with them about the best way to support and care for our area.

Neither group has received enough credit for all the good work they do for the health of everyone. People are, however, very quick to criticise them when things are not going as planned.

Our next Breathe Easy meeting is at Gosport Leisure Centre on Thursday from 2pm-4pm and we will have Jeanette from the Surgery Signposters talking to us about what the Signposters do and how they can help everyone.

They provide a new service for all the local surgeries so please come along and find out more about how they can help you. Members of the CRIS specialist respiratory nurses will also be there if they are able/not dealing with patients. The meeting is open to anyone with a respiratory condition and any family/friends who have an interest in this area.