Monday 13 November 2017
The Committee for Health & Social Care has today set out plans to transform health and care services delivered across the Bailiwick over the next 10 years.
The proposals ensure that islanders are at the heart of the health and care system, and are based on greater integration between providers, focusing on prevention and offering greater support in the community.
Deputy Heidi Soulsby, President of the Committee for Health & Social Care, said:
'The delivery of high quality professional health and care services is of critical importance to everyone in the Bailiwick, and our proposals seek to recognise and protect current areas of excellence, while improving the system's overall ability to prioritise prevention, early diagnosis and treatment, and respond flexibly to the Bailiwick's future needs.
'It is recognised that our current model of health and care is complex and fragmented. This approach is both expensive and ineffective in meeting the needs of today's population. If we don't change, the cost of delivering health and care to the taxpayer will increase in real terms from £193m. this year to £214m. by 2027.
'HSC's proposals seek to change the landscape of health and care - physically, virtually and financially - to transform the current system to respond to the challenges of the twenty-first century, and the Bailiwick's well-chronicled and understood future demographic issues. It seeks to achieve a system based on integrated care, placing the user at its centre and providing a greater focus on prevention and support and care in the community.'
This improved integration will see providers come together through a Partnership of Purpose. The Partnership will bring together service providers such as GPs, medical specialists, third sector and other health and care organisations, all working with HSC and listening to the users of those services, to offer better coordination for the range of care islanders receive on a daily basis. It will provide continuous coordinated care, centred on the needs of the user and which makes every contact count. For service users, the collaboration between the providers will mean that the course of care should be seamless.
Health and care services provided by the Partnership of Purpose will be more joined up physically through a number of easily accessible sites called Community Hubs, linked to a Main Campus at the PEH site, with a Satellite Campus in Alderney. A Principal Community Hub will be established that brings together a range of community services currently scattered across Guernsey.
A walk-in clinic will be established at the PEH Campus to offer convenient access to a range of medical and social services.
The Partnership of Purpose will be responsible for providing a range of health and care services, either free or at subsidised rates and known as the Universal Offer. This represents the core set of services that all Bailiwick residents should have access to.
Deputy Soulsby said:
'Currently health and care provision can be expensive to individual islanders, and HSC is clear that income should not be a barrier to good health. A universal offer will be created, detailing the services available across providers - primary, secondary and off-island - and the existing funding will be reorganised and re-directed to ensure the available finances are used to best effect.'
Building on the Universal Offer, all islanders will be issued a Care Passport that will set out their entitlement to services. This will recognise that, at certain stages of life, such as women during pregnancy, islanders may require additional services over and above the standard offer. This will also be one way to support those islanders with multiple long-term conditions.
The creation of a Bailiwick Health and Wellbeing Commission, bringing together the public, private and third sectors, will help raise awareness, encourage healthy lifestyle choices and take proactive steps to improve islanders' general health and wellbeing, mentally and physically. The Universal Offer will include social prescribing schemes such as arts activities, mindfulness, group learning, gardening and cooking that will help people take greater responsibility for their health and care.
A user app will be available that will begin as a directory of services provided by the Partnership of Purpose, but will evolve to enable appointments to be booked directly and eventually become the primary means by which islanders can find details of the Universal Offer, access their Care Passport and know their entitlement to health and care services.
Deputy Soulsby added:
'Information, in all its forms will be central to the transformation. Through technology, we can support islanders in the home, provide electronic access to records and digital signposting to services. Through improving our data, for example through conducting Public Health Needs Assessments, we can better understand the community's requirements and respond accordingly.'
An independent Care Regulator will be established that will provide appropriate and proportionate regulation which will apply to all providers of health and care in the Bailiwick, including those provided by the States of Guernsey.
Last but not least, the newly established CareWatch, comprising representatives from the Bailiwick community will have an important part to play in ensuring islanders' voices are heard in the future.
Deputy Soulsby concluded:
'We have the opportunity to create a truly exciting model of health and care for the Bailiwick and we need to grasp that opportunity now. Time is running out. But by government, private sector, third sector and each and every one of us working together, over the coming years we can put in place a model that can truly help deliver the key vision of making the Bailiwick one of the happiest and healthiest communities in the world.'
