Seamless Healthcare Needs Intergrated Services, UK

Main Category: Primary Care / General Practice
Article Date: 18 Jan 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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The integration of primary and secondary healthcare services is no longer some distant shadow on the horizon that can be safely ignored. Government policies to shift care out of hospital demand closer collaboration and new ways of working.

In a new discussion paper: Integrated healthcare services - the future of commissioning and provision of out of hospital healthcare in the NHS, the Alliance has put forward practical solutions that meet the needs of the patient for a seamless healthcare system. They propose:

- The introduction of Integrated Provider Organisations based around one or more practice based commissioning groups (depending on population size), and

- The creation of Community Specialists and Consultants whose expertise and status would be equivalent to their hospital based counterparts.

The NHS Alliance also argues that the development of integrated healthcare must now be taken forward by clinicians, rather than waiting for the imposition of structural change from above. To begin that process, they have invited the Academy of Royal Colleges, the RCP, RCGP and BMA to work in partnership with the Alliance.

The paper's author is Dr Minoo Irani, a consultant paediatrician who leads the NHS Alliance Specialists in Primary Care Network. He said:

"Adversarial competition, resulting from practice based commissioning and payment by results, has led to PCTs, NHS Trusts and Foundation Trusts competing for organisational preservation, while clinicians have been polarised into professional self-preservation mode.

"The needs of the patient for a seamless healthcare system risk being compromised unless something is done to address this 'wrong sort of competition'. The model we propose addresses these issues." NHS Alliance chairman Dr Michael Dixon said:

"We have long argued for greater collaboration at the clinical interface between primary and secondary care. The solution we've put forward is practical, achievable and cost effective. Now we hope our secondary care colleagues will join with us in developing it further."

Notes:

1. The NHS Alliance is the independent body that represents NHS primary care. It is a collaboration of primary care clinicians, managers and Board members who put patients first, and is the only fully multi-professional health service organisation in the UK.

2. Its Specialists in Primary Care Network is one of twelve NHS Alliance networks. Others include the PBC Federation, CETNET (the Chief Executives; Transformation Network), Providers' Network and more.

NHS Alliance