Patients will receive better, more joined-up care under new plans announced to improve the links between health and social care.
A new integration white paper from the Goverment has set out a vision for an integrated NHS and adult social care sector which will better serve patients and staff. Despite the best efforts of staff, the current system means that too often patients find themselves having to navigate complex and disjointed systems. Those with multiple conditions can be left feeling frustrated at having to repeatedly explain their needs to multiple people in different organisations, while others can end up facing delayed discharge because the NHS and local authorities are working to different priorities in a way that is not as joined up as it could be.
The white paper sets out some of the ways health and care systems will draw on the resources and skills across the NHS and local government to better meet the needs of communities, reduce waiting lists and help level up healthcare across the country.
This includes:
- Better transparency and choice – if local authorities and the NHS share data and are more transparent about their performance, the local population will be able to see how their areas’ health and care services are performing and make decisions about their own care.
- More personalised care – linking GPs with wider forms of community support, such as social prescribing, could allow care to be more personalised which would help reduce the need for people to have more expensive, invasive medical treatment.
- Earlier intervention – integration will help people to access to the right services at the right time, including specialist services, which could mean earlier intervention that could prevent diseases from progressing and reduce the need for invasive and expensive interventions late in the day.
- Clear communication – integration will mean patients having a single digital care record so they can book appointments, order prescriptions, and communicate with their care providers on one platform while those involved in delivering health and care services can access the patient’s latest information – not only will this save time, it will help ensure a patient does not have to repeat themselves so many times, and professionals will have the information they need to make care plans that work for the patient.
- Improved access to social care services through NHS data sharing – currently local authorities cannot access all NHS data to make decisions about access to social care services – an integrated system would allow the NHS to notify a local authority straight away if a person requires social care support.
- Better treatment – managing diseases in the community through better join up between primary, community and hospital services means better treatment for patients.
- Better NHS support to care homes – integration between hospitals and social care would mean more specialist support so care home residents could be treated before they get unwell and avoid having to go to hospital.
- Co-ordinated services – better integration across health and care will reduce the burden on people to have to coordinate between different hospital specialists, GPs, social care and local authority services themselves.
- More flexible services – aligning financial incentives and pooling budgets will mean that the NHS and local authorities can use their resources more flexibly to benefit patients.
- Better value for money – reducing duplication and waste will mean that NHS investment can be spent in ways that benefit patients and deliver savings for social care, ensuring value for the taxpayer.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: "The pandemic highlighted what our fantastic NHS and local government can achieve when they work together – from delivering the phenomenal vaccine rollout to supporting those who were shielding. We now want to build on these successes, joining up health and social care even more to deliver the best possible care – whether you want to see a GP quickly or live independently with dementia. These plans will ensure no patient falls between the gap, and that everyone receives the right care in the right place at the right time."
Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: "Better integration is vital to stop people falling into the gaps between health and social care. Ensuring our health and care systems work in unison will mean we can support hardworking staff, provide better care to patients and deliver value for the taxpayer. Our Integration white paper is part of our wider plans to reform and recover the health and social care system, ensuring everyone gets the treatment and care they need, when and where they need it."
Integrated approaches are already being pioneered in many areas. In Portsmouth, local authorities, health Trusts and voluntary organisations combined their knowledge and expertise to improve support for vulnerable people in the community across a range of different services including health visiting, school nursing and learning disability support. In Tameside and Glossop, an electronic staff record system has enabled data to be fed into COVID-19 situation reports, so that staffing levels can be managed more effectively based on live data.
Integrating services in other parts of the country will help staff to treat increasingly complex conditions and combat health disparities, including by harnessing new and innovative technology.
To help embed integration across the country, there will be a single point of accountability at a local level to ensure closer links are forged between health and care systems, with consistent and compatible targets.
