Rural Health Planning for Wales
The Rural Health Plan aims to enure that the future health needs of rural communitites are met in a way which reflects the particular conditions and characteristics of rural Wales.
‘One Wales: A Progressive Agenda for the Government of Wales’ contains the following commitment:
“We will develop and publish a Rural Health Plan, ensuring that the future health needs of rural communities are met in ways which reflect the particular conditions and characteristics of rural Wales”.
In order to take this commitment forward, a Ministerial Steering Group was established in February 2008. The group is chaired by Lord Elystan Morgan, with Jane Jeffs and Professor Marc Clements as co-vice chairs.
The Steering Group has taken evidence from the public and key stakeholders to inform its work. The Group also commissioned two major pieces of work to inform the Rural Health Plan:
- identifying local people’s perceptions and experiences of health issues in rural Wales
- a literature and research review of published information from the Institute of Rural Health on health and health service models in rural areas.
Thus the plan is grounded in strong evidence of world-wide best practice and community views of current and future need. The Rural Health Plan identifies the need to rethink the ways primary and community services are provided in rural areas.
Three key themes have emerged which are also common to other strategic developments in rural areas:
Access to services
Improving access to services across the spectrum from emergency to routine services.The need and opportunities for closer service integration
Integrated service models, workforce planning and systems are necessary to improve service provision and ensure effective use of resources and skills within communities.Community cohesion and engagement
This is an important resource and is of immense potential to rural and urban settings. Community cohesion, engagement and ownership needs to be a key element of service planning.
The development of "Rural Health Planning - improving service delivery across Wales" has been supported by a number of key documents and reviews. The links to these documents and reviews are available here.
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