29th January 2018
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Mind the Care Gap Campaign: We need to deliver a new long-term vision for health and care
This is the final week of the Mind the Care Gap campaign. During the last few weeks Future Care Capital has raised awareness of health and adult social care challenges as our population continues to age. The theme this week is future health and care provision.
Future Care Capital has developed a 2030 Vision for health and care provision with the unification of both health and care systems being our primary focus. By getting all parts of society working closer together, there is an opportunity to deliver greater collective wellbeing. Future Care Capital’s 2030 Vision calls for a new ‘Care Covenant’ – which sets out a commitment to support the health and care needs of everyone as our population continues to live longer.
Future Care Capital has set out three key milestones it is calling on the Government to deliver as part of their 2030 Vision:
Short term – The Government should put a comprehensive skills framework in place to improve retention, recruitment and standards for the country’s ‘care force’.
Medium term – The Government should invest in technology and home adaptations to respond to growing care needs and better facilitate independent living.
Long term – The Government should agree to the unification of our health and care services, underpinned by a new Care Covenant, transforming outcomes for everyone in society.
The use of technology in health and care settings offers great potential to help deliver better future provision. As part of the Campaign, Future Care Capital spoke to health and care professionals about the use of technology and the ways existing digital tools can be used to better effect. All were agreed that we also need to make greater use of data in the years to come. At a GP practice in Leicester, they do just that. Both health and adult social care professionals at the practice use the same computer system to manage and update patient records. This allows fast and accurate information flows between both sets of staff working with vulnerable older adults in their area.
There were obvious structural issues in terms of data-sharing, but we managed to get over those by using the Care Navigators, who are social workers employed by the CCG. They are probably the only people who have access to health and social care data in Leicester so if you want to have a holistic approach you must look at all aspects of care such as funding between health and social care, data sharing, risk classification, information sharing between health and social care. The Care Navigators are there really to help us along in terms of the holistic care aspect.” Dr Joshi, GP Principal at the Willowbrook Medical Centre in Leicester, discusses the data sharing approach undertaken by his practice
