How to relieve pressure on the NHS

[Northerner]

New model, the house of care, places the patient at the heart of the delivery system and encourages personalised care planning.

As the NHS faces the challenge of improving care for the 15 million people with long-term conditions, one hope for improving health outcomes while balancing the books is to shift from a reactive healthcare system that treats people when they become ill, to a proactive one that co-ordinates care and supports people to stay well. The Wanless report said as much in 2002, but progress towards this goal has been painfully slow.

The need for this shift is acute for people with long-term conditions who use at least 50% of all GP appointments, 64% of hospital outpatient appointments and 70% of inpatient bed days, accounting for ?7 out of ?10 of healthcare expenditure. The growing number of people with more than one long-term condition ? projected to rise from 1.9 million in 2008 to 2.9 million in 2018 ? poses a particular problem. The Department of Health has calculated that this could add an additional ?5bn to NHS costs unless better ways can be found to organise services.

http://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2013/oct/02/promoting-integrated-person-centred-care

 

[trophywench]

Oh now that would be nice, a Personalised Care Plan, with targets!

It's quite hard you know, with an A1c of 6.4 which then goes up to 6.5% and you are full of the joys, aren't I clever? and the bod you happen to see in clinic that time tells you that you need to watch it cos it's creeping up; the next time you go you are already a bit downcast anyway because it has crept up to 7.2 and your DSN tells you not to worry and not to be so hard on yourself .......

Seriously I'm not at all likely to get really upset by this, or even confused - but you can understand how others find it so !

 

[ypauly]

I don't think it would ever be possible to not have any pressure in the NHS. Managers with budgets need to show that that budget is either correct or requires an increase and will do whatever they need to the figure to prove their point.


I have never come across a manager that has ever voluntarily/ deliberately shown that their budgets was too high and needs reducing.


So the pressure will remain, even doubling the budget with immediate effect will only postpone the next round of pressure.

 

[am64]

i have already had some basic training on this in my new job ...in a weeks time i am spending a whole day training more comprehensively ...looking forward to it 🙂

many years back in early 1990's the project i ran used 'user led principals' where we used a 'quality circle' approach to our clients (PCP)..looking at them holistically and referring on to relevant Agencies ...we won a 'chartermark' for it ...nice to see its being filtered into mainstream

 

[trophywench]

Oooh - we had Quality Circle accreditation somewhere I worked, those who were committed to it found it ace but if most of management are cynical about it - then it will fail.

We kept it going in our dept though and it worked really well. This was why we couldn't understand why other depts. it didn't work, but there again if people just aren't prepared to give new methods a try before they condemn them, and just refuse to give it a chance, then you're on a hiding to nothing.

We were all pragmatic as a department - if stuff doesn't work - find another way, the job must be done thoroughly with no stone left unturned, all rules and regulations and Corporate Standards must be adhered to - and crucial ! - the Client must be a Happy Bunny.