What is Personalised Care and why is it needed?
Personalised care is one of the five major, practical changes to the NHS, as set out in the NHS Long Term Plan with an ambition to reach 2.5 million people by 2023/24 and then aims to double that again within a decade.
Personalised care means people have choice and control over the way their care is planned and delivered. It is based on ‘what matters’ to them and their individual strengths and needs.
Susan Gill, Director of Operations – First Contact Clinical, says
The relationship with Connect goes back some way. It has always felt easy to work together, to collaborate, as it feels that our values are aligned. This particular project felt like a good fit. We support a lot of people who are impacted daily by living with persistent pain. Being able to bring them together, to learn not only from an expert but from their peers and to understand they are not alone in their experience was the main driver for us. Working together allows us to see first-hand the positive experience these groups have, and to be make access to any additional behaviour change support as easy as it can for the people attending.
What is Connect Health doing about Personalised Care?
As an organisation, we have been an early adoptor in the implementation of personalised care and prevention within our services. To support our clinicians and patients on this journey, we have carried out a number of initiatives, including:
- Investing in health coaching training (2015)
- developing shared decision-making (SDM) aids (2016)
- introducing patient initiated follow up in all our services (2017)
- piloting collection of the patient activation measure (2020)
- capturing patient feedback on SDM via CollaboRATE (2021)
This move was supported in parallel to NHSE developing the comprehensive model of personalised care, as well as the evidence base maturing around SDM, demonstrating improved quality of life for patients, improved patient experience, reduced healthcare utilisation and improved clinician satisfaction.
In addition, Connect Health formed a partnership with the Personalised Care Institute in 2021. Graeme Wilkes, Chief Medical Officer at Connect Health explains why the initiative is so important.
We are delighted to be working with PCI, demonstrating our significant commitment to ensuring that every decision made, puts the patient at the centre. For Personalised Care to truly work, simply attending a course is not enough.
A combination of strong leadership, co-production and workforce engagement is needed, and by providing specific training for all staff, and providing that leadership, we are well on the way to delivering outcomes that really matter to the people that we work with.
Connect Health sees Personalised Care as being a key enabler in positively impacting system elective recovery. By having a care and support plan, the patient can actively self-manage, be enabled to wait well for surgery or treatment and can benefit from community-based support, which can sometimes be overlooked in a traditional model of care.
Next steps
Personalised care ensures that patients are more in control and make choices regarding their care, ensuring their preferences, circumstances and needs are considered. It is clear that in the context of increasing complexity within healthcare that a one size fits all approach is just not good enough. This is supported by the evidence base that clearly demonstrates that implementing personalised care helps reduce health inequalities and delivers better outcomes and experiences.
As an organisation, the case study clearly outlines our commitment to, and why we have championed personalised care for many years. From investing in clinician skill development, implementation of outcome measures to assure and inform care, as well as becoming a recognised partner of the Personalised Care Institute (PCI). The examples from across our services are wide-ranging and a pleasure to reflect upon, showing clear impact in the populations that we currently with. Where do we go from here and what does the future hold for personalised care in Connect Health?
Well, we’re not finished yet. The implementation of personalised care is both a major change in healthcare but also a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan. We will continue to champion and influence this implementation across our pathways and partnerships. Tangibly, in 2022 we introduced the training modules from the PCI into our mandatory training offering for both clinicians and non-clinicians throughout Connect Health, being the first organisation to do so. This will ensure the patient is the heart of everything we do, and every decision we make within the company.
In 2023, we will be having a laser focus on health inequalities, and how we apply our learning and experience to further pioneer ways in which personalised care can improve access, experience, treatment, and outcomes for all in a way that is both equitable and sustainable. This will include co-production, a national strategy, local action plans and a review of our data capability (what we collect, how we collect it, how we present it) with a view to continue to share our experiences and insight.
– Andrew Cuff, Head of Clinical Strategy and Personalised Care Ambassador at Connect Health
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