Leaders of the Gloucestershire GP Collaborative, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, have shared the next steps in working together through the recently formed Gloucestershire Provider Partnership.
The new partnership means local NHS organisations, are strengthening how we work as one team so people receive more joined-up care. Together, we will improve health outcomes, reduce inequalities, and ensure services are sustainable. In particular, the partnership will focus on improving support for older people living with frailty and dementia, transforming care for people with multiple long-term conditions and expanding community mental health and crisis care for people of all ages. This includes working closely with social care, recognising how important support is in helping people stay well and independent and returning home from any hospital stay sooner.
To achieve our aims, we will work on:
- Improving urgent and emergency care, making it easier for people to get the right help quickly, and reducing unnecessary hospital visits. This includes targeting care in a more proactive way to those at risk of deterioration,expanding rapid response services in the community, increasing the use of virtual wards where patients can be safely monitored at home and creating clearer access points so people know where to go for help.
- Improving mental health care involving expanding community services, strengthening local support, and improving how we respond to people in crisis. This will include earlier support and intervention, better access to urgent mental health care and closer working between NHS services, social care and voluntary organisations.
- Developing local neighbourhood teams. These teams will bring together GPs, community services, social care and voluntary organisations to better support people – especially those living with frailty or long term conditions. This work will focus on helping people stay independent for longer, including:
- supporting people to stay at home or return home sooner
- providing short-term support to help recovery and avoid hospital admission; and
- using data to identify people who may need help earlier.
Together, this work will help create a more joined-up, responsive and sustainable health and care system for Gloucestershire, designed around what local people need. Importantly, we will work in partnership with people who have lived experience to shape how services are developed and improved.
