Fourteen integrated care pioneers have been announced by the government to transform the way health and care are delivered to patients.
The winning initiatives are:
– Barnsley
– Cheshire
– Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
– Greenwich
– Islington
– Leeds
– Kent
– North West London
– North Staffordshire
– South Devon and Torbay
Fourteen integrated care pioneers have been announced by the government to transform the way health and care are delivered to patients.
The winning initiatives are:
– Barnsley
– Cheshire
– Cornwall and Isles of Scilly
– Greenwich
– Islington
– Leeds
– Kent
– North West London
– North Staffordshire
– South Devon and Torbay
– Southend
– South Tyneside
– Waltham Forest and East London and City
– and Worcestershire
In one scheme, the five clinical commissioning groups in Staffordshire are teaming up with Macmillan Cancer Support to transform the way people with cancer or those at the end of their lives are cared for.
And in Kent, CCGs will be working with county council, district councils, acute services and the voluntary sector to provide 24/7 community-based care, to reduce care home admissions while improving patient independence.
The pioneers have been selected by an internationally renowned panel of experts drawing together global expertise and experience of how good joined up care works in practice.
Norman Lamb, Care and Support Minister, said: “These pioneers are a starting gun for the NHS and social care to achieve a common goal – to get local health and care services working together, not separately, in the interests of the people that they all serve.
“However, this is just the start – we want to make integrated care the norm across the country and planning has already begun in order to invest £3.8bn into integrated health and care services in 2015/16.
“These fourteen pioneers will test new ways of working for everyone to learn from, and drive forward genuine change for the future.”
In Greenwich, one of the successful areas named today, over 2000 patient admissions were avoided due to the work of a team made up of nurses, social workers, occupational therapists and physiotherapists.
The team responds to emergencies they are alerted to within the community. In many cases they are able to avoid a hospital admission for the patient by treating them at home or through short term residential care.
It is intended that learning from this process will be shared nationally, with the aim of making integrated care and support the norm and to end disjointed care within the next five years.
Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer at NHS England, said: “We need to embrace and develop innovative solutions and truly integrated multi-agency working so that local health and social care systems work as a whole to respond to and meet the needs of people who use health and care services.
“Today’s announcement is an important catalyst for this change and a real opportunity to help improve the lives of some of the most vulnerable people in our society.”
