Health Select Committee visits Greenwich Connected Care

On Tuesday 6 May 2014 the Health Committee of which Valerie is a member visited Greenwich Connected Care to hear evidence about the integrated care system in Greenwich.

Valerie said:

“The Committee wanted to hear from a people who have implemented integrated care. Greenwich’s aim was to deliver proactive, co-ordinated and, preventive care to improve patients’ outcomes, while also improving the working lives of the staff and delivering savings to the health and care system as a whole.”

“I asked about the savings made at the acute end, and whether the money saved would be held on to or seen as a pooled budget. Helen Smith, Deputy Chief Executive of Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust, told me that while they do not have any agreements in place, they are looking to put an appropriate commissioning framework and are currently holding discussions. As part of this they will have to decide where to put the financial incentives into the system to incentivise the right behaviour. They are looking at a system that would allow everyone to deliver towards an towards an integrated goal with a risk share system.”

” I asked if the money form the Better Care Fund could be used in the commissioning framework, as the Fund is represents a significant investment in the local health economy.”

“I asked about the support that the Trust was receiving from the Department of Health. Ms Smith informed me that they were getting local support from their project manager to help find solutions to problems, especially those related to IT options.”

The document ‘Improving Health in Greenwich through integrating health and social care’ can be found here.