An important milestone for the NHS — including on the Isle of Wight — has now taken effect. But what does that mean for us?
Sweeping government changes have been branded a new era for healthcare, by senior medical executives, paving the way to transform how services work.
Following years of development and the passing of the Health and Care Act 2022 earlier this year, 42 integrated care systems have now officially start operating – as of Friday 1st July.
For Islanders, it will see the end of the Hampshire, Southampton and Isle of Wight Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) — which only came into force on 1st April 2021, after the Isle of Wight CCG merged with mainland groups. It has now been replaced by the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Integrated Care System (ICS).
But what does that mean, what will happen and what should we expect?
What is an integrated care system?
An ICS will coordinate services and aims to remove barriers between organisations, to deliver better, joined-up care for patients. In turn, it is hoped that will improve health outcomes, reduce inequalities, improve value for money and help the NHS support broader social and economic development.
The Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICS will serve nearly 2 million people, supported by 77,500 health and care staff with a budget of £3.6billion.
To help deliver the ICS, it will comprise 2 main parts — an Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Integrated Care Partnership (ICP).
How will it be managed?
The ICB will run and monitor the organisation. It will be the statutory organisation responsible for ensuring the ICS is meeting its statutory duties.
The ICB will manage the funding, develop strategies and commission services to meet the health needs of the population.
Leading officials, such as a chief executive (Maggie MacIssac), medical officer (Dr Derek Sandeman), finance officer (Roshan Patel) and board chair (Lena Samuels) have already been appointed.
The ICB will also have input from all the NHS Trusts in the region, including the Isle of Wight, Solent and Portsmouth Hospitals University.
What is an Integrated Care Partnership?
The ICP is a statutory committee, formed between the ICB and all upper-tier local authorities — in this instance the councils for Hampshire, Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight.
It will be responsible for producing a strategy on how to meet our health and wellbeing needs.
What are the benefits?
According to the NHS, there are 6 main benefits:
- Improving the health of children and young people
- Supporting people to stay well and independent
- Acting sooner to help those with preventable conditions
- Supporting those with long-term conditions or mental health issues
- Caring for those with multiple needs as populations age
- Getting the best from collective resources so people get care as quickly as possible
Will it be a good thing for the Island?
That depends on who is telling us about the new system…
Within the ICS, there will be ‘place’-based partnerships, focusing on local areas, which will lead the detailed designs and delivery of services across their communities. These partnerships will involve the NHS, local council, community and voluntary organisations, residents, service users, carers and anyone else in the community.
1 potential positive outcome of the ICS, leading Island figures hope, will be a solution to the dental crisis currently facing residents.
With the commissioning of dental services being handed over to the ICS, it has been said more innovative ways of thinking can be introduced to find better, more practical solutions that fit the Island — instead of a one-size-fits-all approach.
Will it impact GPs?
Not day-to-day, but GPs could use their local knowledge to help future planning – for example in places where community need is different to what’s already on offer.
Using their experience, doctors and other medical professionals in primary care will also play a crucial role in identifying ways to tackle health inequalities in the communities they serve.
GPs and the primary care networks will be represented on the ICB by Dr Michele Legg, a GP on the Island who has also been clinical chair of the CCG, and Dr Matt Nisbet a GP in Basingstoke.
What are key priorities of the ICS?
Some key priorities have been set out for the different directors of the Hampshire and Isle of Wight ICS. They include:
- Transformation programmes in cardiovascular disease prevention, frailty and childhood trauma
- Delivering this year’s financial plan and developing long-term financial and sustainability plans, including on for the Island
- Recruiting and embedding 1,200 international nurses into the ICS workforce
- A programme of workforce transformation
- The alignment of the ICS to a 5-year strategy
- Delivery of urgent, emergency and planned care programmes, winter plans and primary care programmes.
In short then, we are lumped in with the mainland, with them getting the bulk of the money, staffing and we get cuts and less services, will they think about FREE travel if anyone has to go to the mainland for treatment, nope of course not. I give it 5 years, if that, before the NHS say the island hospital is not worth keeping open and then everyone will get sent to the mainland for even the most basic treatments, and the hospital site will be just a huge housing estate.
£3.6b is clearly not enough but my concern is the new ICB will have a fresh bunch of chums to award contracts to that deliver the same old poor performing services, just like the CCG.
Il tell you what it means: more over paid managers and associated office staff. Less accountability when things go wrong.
In short a 3.6 billion pound investment in the ‘hope’ it will improve. Fingers in the till anyone?
The reality is likely millions of pounds wasted on new offices, new titles and positions for more pen pushers to meet PC ‘targets’ tick boxes to appease HMG, with questions such as ‘ethnic type’ etc, which IF we really were all the same would NOT need to be asked.
More scrapped letter headed paper, and stationary, new bold modern PC signage art work, more pandering to ‘odd’ people to make them feel and believe they are just as valuable as others, when many are just a liability on tax payers and a drain on stretched resources
Millions wasted on providing large playroom for kids, who, unlike past generations can’t sit and be bored
Basically to sum up – same BS, different initials.
So still far too many chiefs and not enough indians. And what is an international nurse? Oh yeah, more recruitment of foreigners. If the council get involved in any way with care provision, we are screwed.
Whatever the new title, we will still be sat in A&E for hours, still wait months for appointments, still have to jump through hoop to see a doctor or dentist and watch the new benefit fraudsters milking the “mental health” loop hole to claim everything yet be too anxious to work, yet quick enough to claim free food, free disability car and cheap rent, c.tax and disability payment to blow on dope, fags, home delivered ready meals, tattoos
Too many people have been allowed into the UK, who have made the rich richer as they own the land and properties and businesses yet as they have private health care, THEY don’t care
rather well put cut2chase – couldn’t have said it better.
The staff at the hospital are lovely people. I fear that little will change in waiting times as the UK has had its population explosion from the third world thanks to mobile phones giving all the information, aid, and instructions on how to come to the West to source aid, rather than await such. So their lot in life improves whilst ours deteriorates.
For the NHS as these people have never paid in, nor have their parents to the UK’s health system, it becomes a massive cost, & for us, more stealth taxes to fund them & more delays getting treatment.
Mental health’s well funded but much need is due to self inflicted drug abuse
Long term financial sustanabilty plan ,/intergrated services is management jargon for cutting services on the Island and moving services to the mainland.
We pay the same as everybody else for the NHS but recivce a really poor service/access to services
“Greater accessibility” has to mean free ferry travel for NHS appointments. Doesn’t it??
All the comments above unfortunately are a true reflection of the experiences we get from using the healthcare system. I did not see any real answers to the day to day problems we face just titles of new measures that mean nothing to the general public.