Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services - an overview
- The Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services White Paper sets out vision for better healh and social care
- five key ways in which change will be introduced.
The Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services White Paper sets out the Government's vision of more effective health and social care services outside hospitals.
To deliver this, it identifies five clear areas for change: more personalised care, services closer to people's homes, better co-ordination with local councils, increased patient choice and a focus on prevention as much as cure.
To deliver this, the White Paper identifies five clear areas for change:
- personalised care will be driven by better access and more funding following the patient. NHS Walk-in Centres will also be expanded
- services will be brought closer to people's homes through investment in community hospitals and facilities and shifting care safely away from hospitals
- better co-ordination between local councils and the NHS will be a key goal - the Department of Health's new director of adult care services will lead this. Improving the way information is shared between social services and health care providers is also a vital part of the vision
- increased choice will be underpinned by a direct payment or care budget for people to pay for their own home help or residential care, and in the NHS PCTs will be required to act on the findings of regular patient surveys
- prevention of illness will be targeted with several measures, including the establishment of more healthcare teams to deliver better care across institutional boundaries. A new NHS 'Life Check' service will be introduced and a Fitter Britain scheme will be launched as part of the build-up to the 2012 London Olympics.
Putting the White Paper in context
- NHS Plan at half-way point of 10-year process
- increased capacity of NHS now to be focused on more personalised care
- Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services White Paper based on key public consultations.
The NHS is now halfway through its 10-year plan to provide a more modern and effective health care service, and the Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services White Paper is the next step.
Now the focus is moving to putting the increased capacity to use by treating people more efficiently and responding to their needs and expectations
So far, the emphasis has been on increasing the capacity of the NHS, shorter waiting lists and cutting deaths from cancer and coronary heart disease.
Now the focus is moving to putting the increased capacity to use by treating people more efficiently and responding to their needs and expectations.
At the heart of this process is the belief that health care should be patient-led, which is why the Government has staged a number of consultation and listening exercises.
The first key consultation was about adult social care, the Independence, Well-being and Choice Green Paper, followed by the listening exercise, Your health, your care, your say.
The message that came out was a need for a more personalised service, with more care closer to people's homes to support independence.
We are now in an ideal position to tailor health and social care services to the needs of patients.
