Health and social care is about to get a whole lot better for the 750,000 residents of East Berkshire, North East Hampshire and Farnham and Surrey Heath.

Through the plan, councils, the NHS, community partners and services will work more closely together to strengthen services for people’s physical and mental wellbeing. All partners are committed to ensuring that residents have accessible, closer-to-home services delivered in a straightforward way.

The Frimley Health and Care Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP), published on November 24th, is one of 44 plans set up across the country to deliver the ‘Five Year Forward View[1]’ vision of better health, better patient care and improved efficiency.

The new plan sets out how more accessible services will be achieved locally and how services will evolve and become more sustainable over the next five years.

Cllr David Coppinger, cabinet member for adult services and health, said: “Our residents and staff here in the Royal Borough should be delighted by these proposals as it is all about investment in facilities in acute hospitals and community services including GP practices.

“We are already doing what we can to make sure that our own staff and services match closely with what healthcare providers are doing but this new plan will further strengthen those bonds.

“By working closer together we and our partners across the borough and the wider area can ensure that our residents get the care they need, when and where they need it.”

Dr Adrian Hayter, clinical chair of Windsor, Ascot and Maidenhead Clinical Commissioning Group, said: “Despite not commissioning primary services, over the past three years the CCGs in the east of Berkshire have been able to support improvements to access and seven-day working.

“The fundamental basis of this was strong engagement with the public, listening to patients, their challenges and needs around primary care. We have already made significant changes with evening and weekend appointments being available and the feedback so far has been really positive.

“There has also been ongoing engagement with staff working in general practice and supporting staff to change around a new patient agenda. We can now take this to the next level by looking to commission services that integrate well with wider health, social care and community services, to ensure that out-of-hospital care is joined up and supports people’s independence. Engagement is key for us and this is just the beginning of a wider conversation.”

The plan focuses on four priorities:

• Supporting communities and social networks so that people have the skills, support and confidence to first of all stay fit and healthy and when not they can be independent and manage their own care.
• Focusing on the care and health workforce (doctors, nurses, therapists, social workers, mental health experts and volunteers etc.) to ensure everyone delivering any part of the service is ready and skilled to meet the demands of our communities.
• Delivering consistent and integrated care, which means people will only have to give details once, for all aspects of a person’s life where they may need help to maintain good health and wellbeing.
• Using technology and creative interventions to help improve outcomes for people and increase the efficiency of our own services.

The Frimley Health and Social Care STP will, over the next five years:

• invest in frontline NHS and care services to improve waiting times, treatment and home-based care for local people. GPs will have more time to focus on the patients with the highest need and the number of community nurses and pharmacists will increase
• secure extra funding so people can get a GP appointment from 8am to 8pm Monday to Friday. That’s 420,000 more GP appointments across North East Hampshire, Surrey Heath and East Berkshire
• offer increased access to urgent weekend care including new ‘health hubs’ across the community for specialist and family doctors, community nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, psychiatrists and pharmacists
• invest in mental health services so patients needing specialist care may not always need to travel out of the area, and provide services seven days a week
• ensure patients can access their medical records online, and use technology for those with diabetes, heart or breathing problems to monitor their health and alert doctors to any problems.

The plans cover a period of five years (from 2016 to 2021) and will be published on the council’s website today.

Local people will be invited to get involved in early 2017 and help shape the health and care services in their community.

 

[1] https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/futurenhs/nhs-five-year-forward-view-web-version/5yfv-exec-sum/