Consultation on NHS closes Friday

It is not too late for Herefordshire people to give their views on a new national constitution for the NHS. The new constitution will promote the principles, pledges of values of the NHS for future generations.

Herefordshire Primary Care Trust and Herefordshire Hospitals NHS Trust (HHT) have been working with to promote local public consultation. The deadline for the consultation is Friday 17 October 2008.

Views raised at a public event on Thursday 9 October 2008 at Hereford Racecourse will be forwarded to the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority, and then the regional picture will be presented to the Department of Health.

To obtain further information, including access to the full draft NHS constitution, you can visit the primary care trust web site: http://www.herefordshire.nhs.uk/ or the council's web site: http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/ (look on the home page in the 'spotlights' section).

The constitution aims to ensure the NHS operates fairly and effectively. It will also reaffirm the right to equal access to health services free of charge at the point of delivery and aims to safeguard patients' rights to choice and to approved drugs and medication recommended by GPs and clinicians.

Ideas for the draft constitution have come from extensive discussions with staff, patients and the public in Herefordshire as well as in primary care trusts across the UK.