Health bosses are set to hit the road to talk to the public about the “really significant challenges” facing the region’s health and social care services.
Staff from the region’s social care partnership will be popping up with Time to Talk sessions in town centres and at farming shows to find out about people’s experiences and their ideas for the way forward.
The move comes with the partnership bracing itself for the number of over 65s in the region set to increase dramatically by 2040.
Chief officer of Dumfries and Galloway Social Care Partnership Julie White said: “We have really significant challenges around health and social care in our region. You would be forgiven for thinking that the easing of Covid-19 and the implementation of an amazing vaccination programme relieved pressure on systems and put us in a much better place.
“In reality, the very real and growing challenges we faced as we entered the emergency response to Covid-19 never went away. We continue to face unrelenting growth in demand for all of our services, we are experiencing significant challenges in recruitment and this is against a backdrop of considerable financial pressure.”
Figures from the health and social care partnership show that the number of people aged between 65 and 84 in Dumfries and Galloway is set to rise to 39,491 in 2039, compared to 29,254 in 2011.
And the number of over 85s will almost treble from 3,796 to 9,335.
Meanwhile, the working age population will shrink from 94,966 to 73,671.
Challenges facing health and social care include making sure there are enough GPs, reducing waiting times and also ensuring people are able to be discharged from hospital in time.
Ms White said: “There’s an awful lot we can talk about but Time to Talk will have a focus towards community health and social care – as this is the area which we see as demanding an immediate focus.
“This takes in everything from care homes to care at home services, day services, cottage hospitals, community health services, social work services and primary care services such as general practice and community pharmacies.
“Throughout the pandemic we’ve continued to work hard towards our goal of providing people with the right care, in the right place, at the right time and supporting people to live well within the comfort of their home as much as possible.
“We’ve made progress around home teams, single access point and assistive and inclusive technology during Covid-19 as a means to achieve this but we need to shape our approaches together on how all of this is delivered.
“Everyone should have an interest in where we go with health and social care, as it affects every single one of us.
“We really need as many people as possible to enter into a conversation with us so that we can build our future approaches together, with the benefit of combined knowledge, insights and ideas.”
Time to Talk sessions will be held over the summer months with pop-up booths in high streets, at supermarkets and public events including agricultural shows. Sessions will also be held online.
For more information visit www.dghscp.co.uk/timetotalk
