NHS England, Healthwatch and local Clinical Commissioning Groups, will be working with all four hospital trusts in Southern Hampshire to engage with patients and the public about a new proposal on the future of Southern Hampshire vascular services.

The expert clinical review of services in Southern Hampshire carried out in October 2015, concluded that change is needed to ensure services are compliant with the standards set by the Vascular Society to provide safe, high quality services for patients and to meet the requirement in the future to provide 7 day working across the NHS.

Following the review, NHS England worked with vascular doctors to develop a vision for the future of vascular services in Southern Hampshire and is now informally engaging with patients and the public about these proposals. Five public events will be held in May 2016 to:

• Share the proposals
• Listen to the views of patients, public and staff
• Encourage people who are interested in the future of services to join a patient reference group

The ambition is to create a world class service in Southern Hampshire that:

• Ensures we have more doctors with the right specialist skills
• Meets national standards
• Achieves best practice agreed by experts

Doctors and other specialists have worked together on these plans for the future and now NHS England wants to share these ideas, hear what patients, carers and other stakeholders think and use their views and experiences to ensure the services work well for patients.

Read the full business case for change and leaflet for more details about the proposals.

Full event details:

Southampton on Tuesday 10 May
Time: 4.30 – 6.30pm
Location: Novotel Southampton, 1 West Quay Road, Southampton, Hampshire, SO15 1RA

Gosport on Wednesday 11 May
Time: 4.30 – 6.30pm
Location: Gosport Community Association and Thorngate Halls, Bury Road, Gosport, Hampshire, PO12 3PX

Portsmouth – Thursday 12 May
Time: 4.30 – 6.30pm
Location: Dennis Sciama Building, University of Portsmouth, Burnaby Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 3FX

Newport, Isle of Wight – Tuesday 17 May
Time: 4.30 – 6.30pm
Location: Riverside Centre, The Quay, Newport, PO30 2QR

Winchester – Thursday 19 May
Time: 4.30 – 6.30pm
Location: Winchester Hotel and Spa, Worthy Lane, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 7AB

If you are unable to attend the events, you can have you say online at: www.engage.england.nhs.uk

Event queries:

Contact Sue Pratt, Communications Manager at NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit on 0117 900 2549 / swcscomms@swcsu.nhs.uk

Media and other enquiries:

Carol Wood, Head of Communications, NHS England South (Wessex) on 0113 8252994 / carol.wood4@nhs.net