This in from the IW NHS, in their own words. Ed
The strategic partnership agreement, which was approved by the Isle of Wight Council’s Executive committee meeting on the 26 January, was also formally agreed unanimously by the Isle of Wight NHS Trust at their public board meeting in Ryde yesterday (3 February 2016).
The agreement, which seeks to develop community-based, integrated health and social care services, will come into effect from 15 February 2016.
The integrated health hub
Incorporated into the agreement has been the continuing development of a single integrated contact centre, featured recently by The Guardian newspaper in an article about the “health hub pioneer”, which will cover a range of services from taking 999 ambulance calls to the Wightcare alarm calls and other related Trust and Council services.
The partnership will now seek to develop the integration through a focused board to achieve effective and efficient early help and prevention, better integrated working practices among professionals meaning customers only having to tell their ‘story’ once. It will also involve the increased utilisation of assistive technology to enable people to monitor their own health in the comfort of their own home. Integrated teams will also be working more closely with the third sector and developing an increasing number of self-management plans to enable more people to remain in the community, supported by their community and reducing the need for hospital admissions.
Ability to move to the next stage
Speaking after the board meeting, Eve Richardson, Chair of the IW NHS Trust said:
“As part of the My Life a Full Life programme we have already been working closely together to look at how we can improve the way we deliver health and care services to the Island community as part of our five year vision for health and social care.
“This landmark agreement gives us the ability to move this to the next stage and formally integrate our teams and develop more joined-up working to benefit local people and make the most of our combined skills and resources.”
Councillor Steve Stubbings, IW Council Executive Member for Adult Social Care and Integration, said:
“This is the first step in our journey towards the one Island pound model; a completely integrated provision of health and social care on the Isle of Wight. I am delighted to see that it was unanimously supported by both the council’s Executive and NHS Trust Board.”
Details of the partnership agreement can be found here. For more information on the My Life a Full Life programme visit our Website.
