With a new year approaching, the Coventry & Warwickshire Health and Care Partnership – to which we belong – will soon set out its plans for the next five years.It may be that you unaware of...
With a new year approaching, the Coventry & Warwickshire Health and Care Partnership – to which we belong – will soon set out its plans for the next five years.
It may be that you unaware of the Partnership and its work. So, ahead of the launch of its official Five Year Plan early next year, here’s a refresher on what it’s all about…and a heads-up on how it intends to help improve health and care across the region in 2020 and beyond.
Not that long ago, looking after our communities used to be simple. If people were ill or needed care, the NHS just did what it always has. First port of call: the GP. And then, if people needed more support, the local hospital would always be there.
But the world is changing. Rising demand, increased strain on the system, and permanent pressure on finances mean the way we deliver care must change too. So over the past three years – quietly in the background – a new approach has been taking shape.
Just like in other regions all over the UK, our local NHS organisations have been joining forces with our local councils. Together, they are the Coventry & Warwickshire Health and Care Partnership. Together, they are sharing their knowledge and pooling their resources. And together, they have a plan for improving health and care.
Our NHS is still our NHS; our local council is still our local council. But together they are working as one to help everyone lead healthier and more fulfilled lives, be part of a strong community, and benefit from effective and sustainable health and care services where and when they need them.
It’s because everyone’s health and wellbeing is often determined by where and how they live. It’s because factors like employment, quality of housing, transport, lifestyle choices, and other public services can influence levels of demand on GPs, hospitals and community care. And it’s because, by working together, the Partnership has the potential to positively affect it all.
Now, three years after that Partnership first took shape, it is preparing to share its plans for the next five years. Aligned to the recently-published national NHS Long Term Plan – which highlights the likely healthcare needs of the entire UK over the next five years – the Partnership has identified key local priorities for the people of Coventry & Warwickshire, and has set out how it will address them.
Doctors and nurses; NHS and local authority leaders; elected councillors and members; MPs; the voluntary and community sector and patient groups have all helped shape the Plan and are all supportive of its aims. They all know that people’s lives are healthier and more fulfilled when the organisations who look after them work more closely together. And, by doing so, they believe they can help prevent ill health, as well as treat it.
It sounds obvious, but real-life improvements to the way we care for our communities can only happen if our Partnership works together. And, what’s more, joining up services helps make the money go further, meaning it can be spent where it is needed most. People are at the heart of the Partnership’s Plan.
It will be talking to you and the communities you serve more regularly so you and they feel part of what it is trying to achieve. It wants to inspire and help people to lead more fulfilled lives. And it will be asking you to tell it how you think it is getting on, and if you think it should be doing things differently. Prevention will be key to everything.
The more ill health we help prevent, the more money we have to spend on things like cancer, stroke, mental health, emergency care, heart disease and all the other ever-present conditions and illnesses.
Working together has already delivered some brilliant benefits since the Partnership was formed.
Smoking is down, under 18 pregnancy is down, and the number of people dying from preventable cancer is down. Breastfeeding is up, a good level of development in children aged five is up, and the number of women leading healthy lives aged 65+ has risen higher than the national average.
The Partnership is also about to share the results of a full public consultation on the way we care for people who have suffered a stroke, and is likely to recommend the establishment of a single hyper-acute treatment centre alongside a consistent community rehabilitation programme. The Partnership has also made significant strides in its aim to treat as many people as possible out of hospital – something which, where possible, is clinically-proven to be better for the patient AND which makes our stretched budgets go further.
What our Partnership has achieved so far is just the start. Its full Five Year Plan will set out its priorities in detail but, in short, it is determined to deliver real, meaningful, positive change. Together – our region’s NHS organisations, local authorities, voluntary sector and the public – have the power to shape a future in which everyone feels healthier and more fulfilled. It’s a Partnership that is strengthening all of the time.
So watch out early next year for the detail on how it intends to help us all deliver on those aims.