On Tuesday this week I attended a Kings Fund event titled ‘Mainstreaming primary and acute care systems and multispecialty community providers’. The event focused on sharing the learning coming out of the multidisciplinary community providers (MCP) and primary and acute care systems (PACS) new care models vanguards. The various speakers spoke eloquently and passionately about what … Read more
I don’t know. You wait and wait for an important, much-delayed report to be published and then suddenly, like buses, two come along together.
Yet tempted as I am by the thought of reading and commenting on all seventeen sections and twelve volumes of Sir John Chilcot’s Iraq Inquiry report, I’m more taken by the latest offering from Dame Fiona Caldicott, our National Data Guardian for Health and Care. Read More…
The 15th June saw the publication of “Stepping up to the place: The key to successful health and care integration”. It is a joint publication from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, Local Government Association, NHS Clinical Commissioners and NHS Confederation. It shows there is clearly a growing momentum for place-based systems of care and a recognition that the free flow of information both at the individual and population level is a prerequisite for any successful integration strategy. Read More…
In October this year NHS Clinical Commissioners published a document called Local Solutions to National Challenges. It is worth a read, not least because it re-states the raison d’être of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).
This is important because in the document there is an acceptance that the Five Year Forward View (5YFV) is a game changer and that transformation is not an option. Unsurprisingly the not so hidden sub-text is that Clinical Commissioning Groups are key agents of that change. Read More…
It’s that time of year again. The nights are drawing in and there’s a chill in the air. And we all know how cold winter weather exacerbates respiratory conditions and vascular diseases, putting more people at risk of emergency hospital admissions and piling the pressure on A&E departments. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma are two conditions that can worsen during winter, particularly for the elderly.
According to the NHS England white paper ‘Understanding Winter Pressures’, of all the people who present at A&E, those aged 75 and over have a greater than 80% chance of emergency admission. And it is those requiring emergency admission who spend the most time in A&E. Read More…