All Trusts and CCGs should have someone responsible for inclusion health, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has claimed.
Studies have shown that some groups in society – homeless people, sex workers, gypsies and travellers, and vulnerable migrants – have a significantly increased risk of ill health and a significantly reduced life expectancy.
All Trusts and CCGs should have someone responsible for inclusion health, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has claimed.
Studies have shown that some groups in society – homeless people, sex workers, gypsies and travellers, and vulnerable migrants – have a significantly increased risk of ill health and a significantly reduced life expectancy.
Yet the college believes their specific needs are “rarely recognised or planned for” in the NHS, and the responsibility for identifying their needs and responding accordingly is often ill-defined.
New minimum standards to guide the planning, commissioning and provision of healthcare for excluded groups say that all trusts and clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) should have someone with specific responsibility for inclusion health, to liaise between the trust, CCGs, and the local authority, including directly with the public health department.
Standards for commissioners and service providers, was produced by healthcare professionals with direct experience of designing and delivering inclusive care for these patients – the Faculty of Homeless and Inclusion Health, The College of Medicine, and Pathway.
The standards are endorsed by the Royal College of Physicians and were commissioned by the Department of Health’s National Inclusion Health Board.
The document includes generic standards for commissioners; sets of specific standards for health services likely to be accessed by disadvantage groups; and standards that apply to each group individually.
A statement from the RCP reads: “These standards will reduce length of hospital stay, improve compassionate care and improve discharge planning. Taken as a whole, they amount to a blueprint for the sensitive and appropriate care of people who have often been poorly-served by our healthcare services.”
