Final report for the public consultation on the “Closer to Home” proposals for Cumbria Primary Care Trust

Abstract

Cumbria Primary Care Trust has developed a strategy in consultation with key partners to provide health services closer to people’s homes in North Cumbria. Proposals on the strategy have been subject to a consultation period of three months during which time the public and organisations have been asked to respond to the proposals through a questionnaire or through other form of feedback including a series of public meetings. A document containing relevant information about the proposals was made available to the public with the questionnaire in pull out form in the centre pages. It was also made available on a dedicated website. The consultation process was subject to scrutiny by the Health and Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee of Cumbria County Council. The Centre for Health Research and Practice Development, University of Cumbria was commissioned to undertake the analysis of the responses to the consultation. The questionnaire was devised by the PCT not the University. The questionnaire data took the form of paper-based and web-based responses completed by the respondents. Some questionnaires were completed with the help of, or by, interviewers in GPs’ surgeries. These often provided poor data responses and there were many questions not answered compared to the other responses. Personal details were masked in accordance with data protection requirements. The analysis took the form of highlighting and coding the main points in answers to the questions in the questionnaires and in other written responses and categorising these coded responses. Main themes cutting across the categories were then identified