NHS West Lancashire CCGOur vision for joined up care

A quick introductionNHS West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group, often referred to as the ‘CCG’, is your local NHS body, run by local GPs and clinical staff, and we aim to continually improve the care, treatment and health of patients in West Lancashire.

You have told us you that you would like better care delivered closer to your home and although we know that effective quality care is being provided at the moment there are several improvements that we believe can be made to move this care closer to home. One improvement is to help boost community services. Another, equally as important, is that both health and social care services should work better together in a more joined up and co-ordinated way. This includes working better with local voluntary groups and our other partners.

The long-term vision, which we call ‘Facing the Future Together’, is looking at just this…improving the current set up and offering more joined up and integrated care for you.

This document introduces this vision and highlights our current thinking. This is the first stage in improving health and health services as set out in our plan for the next five years (see further reading section below).

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What do we know at the moment?From what you’ve told us to date and also the local/national picture, here are some examples of what we know so far:

• Access to GP practices needs to improve

• Patients and their families often prefer receiving care closer to home than in hospital

• Those living in rural communities would like better access to services they need

• Accessing services is not the same for everyone across West Lancashire

• The current system appears fragmented and confusing, with lots of duplication

• Communication and IT needs to improve to allow all clinicians to see the information they need to treat you the best that they can

• Patients are having to tell their story several times

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What are we trying to achieve?Our vision is simply to:

“ ensure the best possible care and health outcomes for our population and to empower our population to be in control of their own health ”

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By this we mean services that are delivered outside of hospitals i.e.

within other healthcare settings such as local clinics or within patients’ homes. Examples of some of the roles working within community

services include GPs, district nurses or community

matrons.

What are‘community services’?

Developing community health servicesOne of our contractual requirements is to deliver a continuously improving service to our population. To ensure we get the best service and the best outcome for every penny we spend, we review all of our contracts on a regular basis. In addition, we are legally obliged to test the market for other ways of providing services.

As such, we are now carrying out a procurement for the local community health services contract. We are asking potential service providers (hospitals, voluntary groups and others) if they wish to help us deliver comprehensive community health services.

• services delivered by hospital and community staff, GPs, and existing community groups and individuals have patient care at their heart, and are joined up and co-ordinated in the way that they are provided.

• services are provided as close to the patient and their home as possible

• people are kept in their own home, wherever that is, as long as possible, maximising long-term independence and quality of life for our local population

• care is led by clinical staff from a range of different teams (e.g. GPs, mental health nurses, podiatrists)

• we get the best value for money from all of the services that we buy for the population of West Lancashire, that also importantly offer the best quality.

To do this we will look at further integrating care for patients. By this we mean health, social care and voluntary services are more joined up and working more closely together. This will include ensuring:

Why do we need to change at all?• Our society is ageing and that means there

are greater health and social care needs (the number of over 85 year olds expected to double over the next 20 years)

• More people are living longer with more complex illnesses, long term conditions (such as diabetes and dementia) and disability, including children and young people

• The cost of drugs and new medical technology is always rising

• The impact of a rapidly changing world and pace of life is affecting our mental health

• We need to make it fair and tackle any differences in access to care that exist based on where you live or your social circumstances

• Resources are reducing so we need to use what money we have carefully so we have a positive impact on our community and our health

The diagram opposite shows what we are trying to make happen

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M

EDICAL TEAMS

Patients and carersWITH A PERSONAL CARE PLAN

IN PLACE FOR THEM

Joined up care in West Lancashire

SOCIAL CARE

CO

MM

UN

ITY AND VOLUNTARY G

RO

UP

S

CO

M

MUNITY SERVIC

ES

What difference would the improvements make to my care in the future?These changes will ensure:

• you are in the right hands - teams are clinically led with multiple skills and specialities

• you play a part - you are confident in helping to manage your own condition

• you don’t have to repeat yourself - you have a care plan that is tailored to your own needs, which those caring for you can access

• your GP is involved - your GP is responsible for your care but works with specialists to make certain you have the care you need

• you are at the centre - care is carefully wrapped around you, for your needs

• you can find out anything - you can access information via an online-portal

• you can stay close to home - care and treatment is delivered closer to your home

• you don’t need to visit A&E as often - alternatives are available to help you locally

• you receive seamless care - health and social care colleagues work closely together so things run more smoothly

• you know where and when to go - you have a greater understanding of which health service to use when due to clear signposting and easier access

What is ‘integrated/joined

up care’?This simply means organisations

working together and having services and processes in place

that allow us to offer the right care for what each different person needs.

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How can you help us make this happen? By sharing your experiences to dateWe cannot plan what will happen in the future without you and your input. We need to hear your views along the way so this is designed in line with our promise: With You, For You.

We really welcome your input and need to hear about your experiences of using local health services - especially from those individuals in our local community who have moved through the system and used GP practices, hospitals and community services.

If you would like to share your story and experiences (no matter whether positive or negative or how much or little you have to share), please fill in our www.surveymonkey.com/s/joinedupcare, or contact myview@westlancashireccg.nhs.uk or phone 01695 588 203.

Your supportWe are just one part of this

joined up care we are striving for. So many organisations

and individuals are crucial to us achieving this vision.

Without our partners, this would not be possible.

Thank you.

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Further readingTo read more about our vision for the future, please see our Five Year Strategic Plan, which is available in the Resources section of our website.

To read more about what ‘integrated care’, ‘joined up care’ and ‘person centred co-ordinated care’ all mean, please view the following document from National Voices, which is available on NHS England’s website - www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/nv-narrative-cc-easy.pdf.

For further updates on our procurement and this vision, please visit our dedicated Community Health Services page on our website (under our have your say tab)

To get involved with all our developments, please join our My View group, via our website or by calling 01695 588000.

www.westlancashireccg.nhs.uk @WestLancsCCG