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In January 2017 Healthwatch Cumbria (HWC) was commissioned by the West, North and East Cumbria Sustainability and Transformation Programme (STP) to facilitate a series of events to explore the support people feel they need when receiving treatment at a distance. Summary of solutions and ideas; •IT should be used more. This was in terms of using Skype or Facetime to enable patients to stay connected to relatives as well as using more telehealth consultations to minimise the need for travel •Explore how day clinic areas could be used when not needed to increase space available for relatives in hospitals •Greater flexibility with visiting hours to better suit the needs of patients and their relatives •Appointment times should be better tailored to suit travel arrangements and bus times •More information given to patients on things such as how to get to the hospital, local accommodation and parking. Consider a single point of access to a full range of information about public transport providers and local road networks •Consider increasing access to services at weekends to address challenges with childcare and/or caring for other dependents •Better use and awareness of volunteer driver schemes Summary of issues: •Challenges for patients with appointment times, transport and travel •Challenges for relatives wishing to support/visit patients, including having to take time off work to take people to hospital appointments and find out how patients were doing

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