The Issue

After a review of the current diagnostic services, Rotherham CCG considered a number of options for the future, with the aim of improving quality while maintaining access.  Issues included

• appointments at the hospital site were underused
• equipment at the Community Health Centre was outdated and would need completely replacing.

RCCG felt that the only viable option was to decommission diagnostic services at the Community Health Centre and transfer this to the hospital site. 

We asked – what people thought about this?

We spoke to a number of groups, and completed surveys at the Community Health Centre

People raised concerns about access for patients with a disability and older people using the service, considering the longer distance to the bus stop and car park.  People were also concerned about the availability of parking at the hospital, drop off points near to the main hospital entrance and perceived long waiting times within the department once the patient has reached the Diagnostics Service in the hospital.

We couldn’t….

Keeping the two underused sites would not have been a good use of the limited available finances; and limited staffing.  Therefore we had to consolidate these services to one location, and had to mitigate the concerns as much as  possible

We did….

Rotherham CCG has worked with the hospital to make the following changes

• Public car parking will be provided for patients and visitors next to the main entrances to the Hospital;

• Under some circumstances, people can request free parking, and weekly parking passes   are  available at a concessionary rate for family members or carers who have an individual in the Hospital for a period longer than 7 days, or patients attending Outpatient clinics frequently (3 times a week or more) giving unlimited access to pay on foot and pay and display facilities:
• Wheelchairs are now stored right beside the drop off point.

• Drop-off spaces are provided in the short stay/barriered car park with the first 30 minute being free of charge
• Drop off spaces have more than doubled in size and the Trust has confirmed that monitoring has shown that there is now always a space for drop off;
• RCCG is in the process of discussing potential options for the use of volunteer services to support patients to safely access the hospital from the drop off point. 

 Feedback has been received from the Trust that they have recently received praise from patients saying that it is the first time in years they have been able to drop off or get a blue badge spot