Discussing the direction of care

With an almost insurmountable pressure on our hospitals, something’s got to give – and the direction of travel looks set on primary and community care. Could population health be the catalyst that’s needed for wholesale change? In a roundtable event, sponsored by Vanguard Healthcare Solutions, six leading healthcare professionals came together to debate the challenges, drivers, and potential solutions to new models of care and a more integrated NHS.

In the debate and debacle that surrounds the reconfiguration of the NHS, it doesn’t hurt now and again to remind ourselves of its founding principles – namely that good healthcare should be available to all, according to need, and regardless of wealth. It’s an admirable and seemingly simple ambition and yet there are now genuine fears that it’s slipping from our grasp.

“We’ve spent so much time on policy, finance, diktats, and targets and so little time on teams and communities,” says Dr James Findlay, a Northamptonshire GP, clinical pathway lead for Nene CCG and council member of the National Association of Primary Care (NAPC). “It’s time we changed that.”