OVERVIEW

The NHS is often thought of as a single entity, yet in reality it comprises multiple organisations purchasing, providing and organising healthcare. The result for the patient is that the service they receive reflects these professional boundaries and organisational divisions. They experience care that is fragmented, often requiring care from multiple service providers, often in different locations and at different times. This disjointed approach has led to duplication, gaps in care and costly waste. Greater integration of care can help the NHS deliver essential efficiency savings, raise standards of care and ensure a more seamless patient experience. It has been a long held aim to bring together primary, community, acute and social care but how can it be done in practice?

There is an increasing need to shift care away from acute settings and into the community, not only to ensure the NHS remains financially sustainable but also to improve the quality of service so that people receive care when and where they need it. There are a number of successful models of integrated care that have improved outcomes for patients as well as saving substantial amounts from the public purse. Lessons can be learnt to help reduce hospital admissions and improve the coordination of care for patients across the system. Greater understanding can be gained about the organisational and cultural barriers that make it complicated to integrate locally and that block the way for delivering joined-up care. How these barriers can be tackled and be overcome, so that integrated care becomes a reality, is a priority for everyone working within health and social care.

For too long the fragmentation of the NHS has got in the way of delivering high-quality, affordable patient care. Services can be greatly improved, avoidable hospital admissions reduced and significant cost savings made by better co-ordinating care around the needs of the patient. Join us at Co-ordinated Care: Meeting the Needs of Patients, Driving Better Integration where we will showcase real life examples, initiatives and best practice case studies and delegates can explore how to turn the integration rhetoric into a reality.