Primary Care

Improving the nation’s health: No place for anecdote and fairy tales

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Prevention is better than cure

On Monday last week, the Department of Health & Social Care published, ‘Prevention is better than cure – Our vision to help you live well for longer’.

Few would argue that prevention is a bad thing and the themes discussed in the paper are entirely consistent with current health policy which stresses the importance of integrated care, built around the implementation of Population Health Management (PHM) strategies.

Yet despite the paper being published on 5th November, for me at least the sky above refused to colour and sparkle. There was little to celebrate here that was genuinely new and excessive claims are made for the game changing capability of new technology and personal responsibility. Read More…

Population Health Analyses tips

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Ducks in a row

“Thanks for the data, but what am I supposed to do with it?” This is a typical and reasonable response when faced with the prospect of sifting through thousands of patient records to look for ways to improve services and care programmes. Our approach to population analytics is less about telling you what data you’ve got and more about showing you what you can do with it, revealing useful insights that you can act on. Here are some tips for getting the most out of population health analyses. Read More…

Accountable Care Systems and the Spectre of Health Inequity

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Equity vs Equality

In August this year NHS England published a paper titled ‘ACOs and the NHS commissioning system’ In it, NHSE described its vision for commissioning set within the context of Accountable Care Systems and Accountable Care Organisations. One of the most striking features of the document was the inclusion at the very beginning of an ‘Equality and health inequalities statement’.

The debate on health inequalities has been with us for decades. Less has been written on the subject of health inequity. The distinction between inequity and inequality is nuanced but worthy of note.

If Accountable Care Systems are serious about addressing the continuing problem of health inequity then for me there are at least two stand out actions: 1. Use data to gain insight. 2. Put primary care ‘front and centre’. Read More…

Identifying needs, building interventions and busting myths: adventures in population health

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Identifying needs, building interventions and busting myths: adventures in population health

At the recent Health Plus Care Show at London Excel I spoke in the Transforming Primary Care Theatre. The insights I shared were harvested from a number of engagements that Sollis has had with Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) over a five year period commencing in 2012. More recently this work has concerned itself with population health analytics, where we have worked with local commissioners, including clinicians, in order to help them gain a better understanding of the current and future health status/needs of their local populations. Read More…

Primary Care: Home or Haven?

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Primary Care Home or Haven

Primary care transformation has rightly been the focus of attention in many — if not all — of the Sustainability and Transformation Plans (STPs). It is also writ large in Next steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View. Wherever you look, primary care providers are on the march. Read More…

A Way Forward for Community Based Care

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Primary Care Home

This is the second of two guest posts by Professor David Colin-Thomé. Part one: Primary Care Home The Primary Care Home (PCH) is a concept I first described some ten years ago. It is a population budgeted, community based provider organisation able to provide an alternative to current NHS hospital centricity. A home not only … Read more

Primary Care Home

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Primary Care Home

A sustainable and transformed NHS is not possible without a sustainable general practice.
A confident general practice must be forcing the pace on necessary NHS culture change. The Primary Care Home is more than only being a care model, it offers a unique opportunity to ensure the foundation of NHS care will remain list-based primary care. Read More…

Primary Matters

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We are keen to promote a report from The Nuffield Trust and National Association for Primary Care (NAPC), entitled ‘Reclaiming a Population Health Perspective (Future Challenges for Primary Care)’ because we believe it to be vitally important.

The foreword to the report starts by name checking “the late, great Barbara Starfield”. Through our long association with Johns Hopkins University, we at Sollis are very familiar with the work of Dr Starfield. Before passing away in June 2011, Barbara was the Professor of Health Policy and Management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Read More…