Abstract
Summary: COVID-19 has lent further urgency to the need for reform of our health services - accelerating the need to move from congregated, acute settings to provide care for patients not only closer to home but in their own homes - across a range of virtual and remotely accessible platforms. In Ireland, the Integrated Care Programme for the Prevention and Management of Chronic Disease (ICPCD) focuses on improving the standard of care for four major CDs that affect over one million people and increase their vulnerability to COVID-19: cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma. Despite the current challenging landscape, including repeated COVID waves and associated staff re-deployment, we have progressed scale-up and rollout of integrated care services for CD. We share our experience of adapting, re-designing, persuading and persisting in the face of the challenges, and opportunities for accelerated change, brought about by the pandemic.
Background: As the Irish Health Care system emerged from the first wave, we obtained unprecedented funding for national rollout of the programme including over 1160 new integrated care posts: 30 community specialist teams - each made up by over 30 multidisciplinary staff - spanning the specialities of diabetes, respiratory and cardiology.
Aim: We aim to provide a forum to share experiences and learning arising from a programme of national implementation of integrated care for CD which has coincided with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Objectives: 1.Describe the rapid pivot from in-person to virtual across the strands of implementation and how we have learned from international collaborators.
2.Describe the importance of persistence and flexibility in achieving change in a time of crisis.
3.Describe the practicalities and pitfalls of workforce planning and large-scale recruitment in a time of health care worker shortage, redeployment, and pandemic fatigue.
Target audience: We anticipate that this workshop will appeal to a broad international audience and range of integrated care professionals (from primary care, community care to acute care, public health physicians, commissioners and health service managers) – as well as to patients themselves. It may be particularly relevant to those working in CD.
Format:
a.Introduction:[5mins OOR,SOB]
Public Health Physician Perspective: Integrated Care in the time of COVID
b.Presentations:[7minutes;5minutes discussion]
I.Diabetes Self-Management Education, Support and Prevention: shifting left in a pandemic[MH]
II.Integrated Care Workforce Planning and Recruitment in a Pandemic[MG]
III.Virtual Cardiac Rehabilitation in Northern Ireland[SConnolly]
IV.Evaluation of integrated care in a pandemic: shifting the focus from acute hospitalisations[COH]
V.Respiratory Medicine and the National Integrated Care Response to COVID-19 [DM,SCurtis]
c.Discussion: How do we maintain gains and make up for lost time? [OOR, SOB]
10mins small groups;10mins questions to panel
d.Sum-up and closing remarks:5 mins
Key Learnings/Take away: Our programme has played a key role in the national pandemic response including innovations in virtual and remote care for CD - which will now form an indispensable part of hybrid-models of care into the future.