Four NHS Organisations Team Up to Provide Better Care
Making it 'joined up, consistent and tailored to individual needs'
Four NHS organisations in Hammersmith and Fulham have teamed up to develop a radically better way of providing care for the nearly 200,000 local people.
The Hammersmith and Fulham Integrated Care Programme has been established by:
Hammersmith and Fulham GP Federation (including all GP practices in the borough);
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust (including Charing Cross, Hammersmith, Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea, and the Western Eye hospitals);
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (including Chelsea and Westminster and West Middlesex University hospitals); and
West London Mental Health NHS Trust.
The four partners say they are working in partnership with patients and local residents to achieve three broad goals:
To design a practical "accountable care" approach – collectively looking after the holistic care needs of local people and helping them stay as healthy as possible, from the beginning to the end of life, rather than providing separate aspects of treatment when they are sick.
To identify and implement immediate improvements to "join-up" care, primarily through two pilot projects, one focusing on patients who are frequent users of A&E services and a second looking at ways of boosting child health.
To build strong foundations for potentially forming or becoming part of a formal accountable care partnership – influencing and responding to emerging health policy across north west London and the rest of the country.
Anna Bokobza, integrated care programme director at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, says: " To meet changing needs, we have to make the shift from care being reactive and crisis-driven to being proactive and health-focused.
" It’s also essential that, regardless of provider, patients feel their care is joined-up, consistent and tailored to their individual needs.
" If we collaborate and look at the whole care needs of our patients and local residents, we can make the money we currently spend separately on providing services work harder to help individuals stay as healthy as possible and get faster access to the right care when they need it."
August 4, 2016
