Around 60 Southport and Formby residents came along to the sixth Big Chat hosted by local healthcare commissioners to give their views on their local NHS and how to shape future services so they are more effective and efficient.

Guests took part in workshop style discussions with professionals from NHS Southport and Formby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) focusing on the challenges faced by the health service and they were asked for their views and ideas about the opportunities that exist to address them.

The workshop style sessions explored four areas of healthcare that attendees were invited to give feedback on. These sessions explored how the CCG might reduce the estimated yearly £2 million cost of wasted medicines in Sefton, use technology to enhance health services and make them more efficient, commission care that offers the best medical outcomes for patients and change ways of working in GP practices, so that patients can be seen by the right professional first time to help surgeries to better respond to the increasing demands on health services.

Dr Rob Caudwell, chair of NHS Southport and Formby CCG, said: “It’s great to welcome so many people to our Big Chat events who are interested in our work and in getting involved in their local NHS. We had some really good feedback from our workshop discussions and some great ideas about making local healthcare more effective and efficient shared on our ‘innovation wall’.

“These are challenging times for the NHS and it’s more important than ever that we prioritise our resources effectively to ensure that all our patients have continued access to high quality, essential health services when they need them.

“We have to find savings of just under £13 million this year to meet our statutory financial duty to break even, so like all other public services this will mean we have some difficult decisions to make in the months ahead and the views of our local residents are vital in moving this work forward.”

At the end of the event the audience took part in an interactive voting session to find out what people thought of Big Chat 6. More than half the attendees felt that the schemes they had heard about would help to make the NHS more sustainable and 90% felt the Big Chat had given them the opportunity to have their views heard.

Sefton Alzheimer’s Society was also at the event speaking about dementia and the difference that small things can make to those living with the condition. This is part of the CCG’s pledge to the Sefton Dementia Action Alliance to encourage people to become ‘Dementia Friends’.

Big Chats are a chance for the CCG to talk with the public about its latest projects and plans and hear what they think. The events are one of the ways that the CCG involves local residents in its work. Feedback from these events informs the CCG’s thinking about changes or developments to services.

The next Big Chat will take place on Tuesday 27 September and will combine the CCG’s annual review. For more information see our Big Chat page.