11.08.15
CQC launches pioneering project to analyse regional health integration
The CQC has launched a pilot project to analyse what health and care is like across a whole region by stitching together in-depth looks at each local area and assessing how integrated each service is.
It will build on results of previous CQC inspections, as well as other intelligence from local and national organisations, to test whether centralising knowledge about the quality of care in a whole place can encourage health and social care providers to make local improvements.
The pilot, ‘Quality of care in a place’, will primarily focus on Greater Manchester – with a more comprehensive look at Salford and Tameside – and North Lincolnshire to evaluate how coordinated healthcare services are in those local areas.
It will also specifically focus on the elderly and people needing mental healthcare to craft a system-wide picture through individual analyses of each population group.
Ultimately, the project hopes to look at ways in which health and social care regulation can reflect better service integration, with its findings feeding into CQC’s five-year strategy currently being development.
Chief inspector of general practice and integrated care at CQC, Professor Steve Field, “We already know what a valuable source of information our published reports with ratings are for members of the public. Our new ‘Quality of care in a place’ pilot is really about increasing that level of openness even further by building a picture of what the whole quality of care is like for people living in a particular area – including how well services are coordinated.
“As well as identifying any issues that need to be tackled across different organisations and finding out more about health inequalities, we will also use the pilot to highlight examples of good practice that other areas can learn from.
“I’m really pleased we are able to start testing out such an important piece of work that could also tell us more about what impact key issues such as quality of leadership and commissioning have on the quality of care across a local area.”
The two areas targeted in the pilot project were specifically selected because CQC has already completed a high number of inspections of its health and care providers.
They are also looking at a high level for Greater Manchester because they believe the findings will contribute to the region’s devolution initiative – a main aim of which is to coordinate health services better.
North Lincolnshire was chosen partly because of its high proportion of ratings outside of the north west and because the area does not include a big city.
The reports on the quality of care will seek to inform the public about the quality of their local services and how well they work together, show providers and health commissioners where they need to improve local services, and highlight the positive findings of beneficial joint working.
The regulator will issue and consult on report findings for each local area in early 2016.
The integration project comes just a day ahead of new NICE draft guidelines encouraging communities to be at the heart of local initiatives to improve health, particularly by working closely with locals in the planning, design, development, delivery and evaluation of services.
The guidance is based on research that shows closer community integration with local wellbeing iniatives may lead to less health inequalities.
Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive and director of health and social care for NICE, said: "The NHS and local authorities cannot improve people's health and wellbeing on their own. Communities can be a powerful force in identifying how local services can be shaped to best serve them."
(Top image c. Peter Byrne)