VIDEO: local NHS urge ‘get right care, right now’

They join a raft of healthcare professionals - including nurses, doctors, consultants and pharmacists - who have come together to promote our NHS Mobile web App www.rightcarerightnow-nhs.net – a new interactive directory of local NHS services at your fingertips and unique to Crawley, Horsham and Mid Sussex residents, to guide you to the right place for health care where and when you need it.

Dr Minesh Patel, lead GP for Horsham and Mid Sussex CCG, which plans, buys and checks NHS care, stars in the film. He said: “The Right Care, Right Now Mobile web App is aimed at guiding our patients to the right service in the local area.

“Generally it’s very straightforward seeing your GP; it’s about ringing your GP Surgery and often it’s about making an appointment with your GP - but don’t forget that an awful lot of problems can be solved by telephone so if you think it’s going to be difficult to see your GP, simply ask to speak to a GP or a healthcare professional at your GP practice.

“We can see patients with a wide variety of problems; infections – chest infections, urine infections, skin infections, rashes, allergic reactions and very obviously flare-ups of problems that have been an ongoing problem for a long time, so chronic problems such as asthma or chronic bronchitis and heart conditions – you should go and see your GP.”

Dr Amit Bhargava, lead GP for Crawley CCG, also stars in the film. He said: “People with depression, with stress, with alcohol problems - these are all the things we can look after. Some of these things we can deal with through counseling and medication in-house and some things we have to refer to our colleagues who are specialists.

“As GPs we realise that for very little children the parents are very worried and the child needs to be seen as soon as possible. The GP will have access to their records and know the family and we can initiate the right treatment at the right time.

Dr Bhargava added: “We’re guiding people at their time of need with our quick and easy-to-use app and website which uses their symptoms to match them to a service closest to them.

“This campaign is all about ensuring people get care locally, as quickly as possible, and via the right professional. It’s also about supporting our NHS this winter. Everyone knows that demand on care is at its highest when it is coldest. Together, we can look after patients and look after our NHS - we all have a part to play. The Right Care, Right Now campaign and app is one step in the right direction.”

NHS Crawley CCG and NHS Horsham and Mid Sussex CCG developed the Right Care, Right Now campaign in partnership with other local NHS organisations. Film clips starring local community pharmacists and urgent care nurses from Crawley and Horsham have already been launched. If you missed the first two installments, you can catch up now on your local NHS You Tube channel, or you may have spotted the films playing in hospital or GP surgery waiting rooms or within the advice section of the Mobile web App.

The last in the series of Right Care, Right Now film clips, starring A&E consultants from the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath and the Emergency Department at East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, will be screened next month.