Six priority work programmes unveiled to help local residents live longer, healthier lives

Six priority work programmes for health and social care will help residents in Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes to live longer, healthier lives, a new strategy document declares.  Cancer services, long-term conditions, urgent and emergency care, and mental health are among the top areas of focus for the next 15 years.

That’s the aspiration behind the brand new Health Services Strategy which has been published for Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes, offering a renewed focus on health improvement.

With the local population expected to grow by over 200,000 between now and 2040, the region’s Integrated Care Board (ICB) has revealed its Health Services Strategy for the period, containing a series of key priorities which seek to take advantage of new and emerging technologies to help people live longer lives.

Designed in partnership with trusts and doctors responsible for primary care, community health services, inpatient treatment, mental health care and emergency health services, the strategy covers the period to 2040.

The document outlines a series of challenges which health leaders anticipate over the years ahead, including healthcare premises, new technologies, ensuring financial and social value, and service quality, setting out how it will help the ICB to advocate for local residents with regional and national NHS decision-makers.

More immediately, the HSS also sets out six priority work programmes which will deliver ambitious workplans over the short and medium terms.  This collection of work programmes brings together the old and the new: some work programmes will refresh and revitalise work that health and care services already do, others will bring together important elements of health services for the first time. They cover:

• Mental health, learning disability and autism.
• Children and families, including maternity and neonatal services.
• Cancer.
• Long-term conditions and health optimisation.
• Urgent and emergency care, with an emphasis on reducing unnecessary hospital stays.
• Fragile services and access to elective care.

Dr Ian Reckless, chief medical officer at Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board, said:

“The NHS is the subject of increased expectations from patients, who see the growth of our knowledge and the pace of innovation, and rightly demand more of us.  In fact, it’s estimated that the weight of medical knowledge doubles every 73 days!

“The Health Services Strategy is different from many of the policies and strategies that came before it.  We have developed it in discussion with NHS providers and others who deliver publicly funded health services.  It is a document which belongs to the health partners in our ICS, not imposed upon them by us or by Government.”

Felicity Cox, chief executive officer of Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes Integrated Care Board, said:

“This strategy brings our planning cycle more into line with those in use in the local authority sector, helping us to work together more seamlessly.  The whole rationale for creating Integrated Care Systems was to break down the barriers between health and social care, so our new approach makes me optimistic that we will be able to work together to ensure that people live longer lives in better health.

“The strategy also presents new ways to enhance clinical involvement in the work of the Integrated Care Board, with a new Health and Care Professional Leadership Group to help drive progress across the six work programmes.  This will ensure that clinicians and other professionals working in health services know their views are heard and their expertise valued.

“We already undertake widespread activity to hear and understand the voice of patients and the public in everything we do.  We will continue to seek their views as we implement our new work plans, and I always look forward to opportunities to speak with individual patients, carers and representative groups.”

The Health Services Strategy was adopted by the Integrated Care Board at its most recent Board meeting, and implementation will begin immediately.