Implementing new models of care

The extreme pressure under which the NHS finds itself during last winter and continuing into early spring may be exacerbated by the political parties arguing about how the issues should be resolved. That there is a widely experienced problem in the NHS in England is in no doubt, but the resolution is possibly expensive, difficult and will be affected by the election outcome.

In advance of any political solution – which the service will not like, the NHS Chief Executive, Simon Stevens and his team have put forward a ‘cunning plan’ devised by a group of NHS leaders which reflects a growing consensus among patient groups, clinicians, local communities and frontline NHS leaders. The Five Year Forward View (5YFV)¹ identifies three key themes on which they propose that the future of NHS care will be based – managing demand, improving efficiency, and additional funding.

The 5YFV puts forward a vision for creating a more sustainable and integrated service based on new models of care. The models are based on the removal of traditional boundaries between primary and secondary care and identifies a process for the new models to be tried and, if successful, rolled out across other local areas with similar local conditions. The brilliance of the plan is that the models are clinically led and cannot be made political by any party. The so called ‘Vanguard’ programme was announced in mid march, with a budget to be shared of £200m and a supporting team. The scale of the public affected is impressive with up to five million patients potentially who may benefit.