How can health and care services work better together?

For some time, health and care leaders have been working collaboratively on plans for how local services, such as hospitals, care homes and GP practices, can work better together and meet the needs of the population.

These plans form the basis of a new health and care model, which illustrates how care will be provided in the region over the next ten years, and people are being encouraged to share their feedback on the proposals.

From Tuesday 2 November, people can share their thoughts and opinions by taking part in a short online survey or by registering to attend one of a number of in-person engagement events happening across the region between now and the closing date of Tuesday 14 December.

Dr Ruth Grabham, Medical Director, Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group (BSW CCG), said:

“These plans for how our health and care services will work better together going forward have been in the pipeline since long before the pandemic.

“However, so much has happened over the last two years, with all organisations having to adopt new ways of working, that our plans needed to evolve to reflect everything that was learned during our response to Covid-19.

“The good news is that we are now in a position to not only share our new model of health and care, but to also strike up a conversation with the very people who use our services about their views on these plans for the future.

“This is an exciting time for health and care, especially as we move from a system that helps individuals when they are unwell to one that supports our entire population to stay well at every stage of their life, and it’s a journey we want local people to join us on.”

The feedback gathered from the online survey, as well as from the in-person events, will support health and care leaders in reviewing and refreshing the guiding principles that make up the new health and care model.

Detailed within the model are plans for:

• improving personalised care
• supporting healthier communities
• establishing more integrated local teams
• prioritising local specialist services, and
• introducing new specialist centres.

The production of the new health and care model is being carried out by the BSW Partnership, which is an integrated care system made up of NHS providers, local authorities and the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector working together.