Abstract
Background: Current pressures on the NHS in Wales present significant challenges to the delivery of high quality patient care across the country. Difficulties in the recruitment and retention of key professionals to work in remote settings adds to the complexity of ensuring there is sufficient capacity and depth of service. Primary care has been reorganised into clusters serving populations of 30-50,000 with clinical leadership empowered to redesign services in response to local needs. A national innovation programme, the Pacesetters, has provided substantial investment to enable local professionals to trial new approaches to the delivery and sustainability of primary care services in urban and rural contexts. The learning shared by Pacesetter teams has given insight into the current constraints and barriers to whole system change across the NHS in Wales. The outcomes of the projects, together with ideas and experiences of these innovative professionals, also offer practical solutions to the challenges faced and indicate the resources necessary to effect real change. Learning from these local projects has contributed to a future vision of the Welsh health and care system which is centred on primary care. This model seeks greater service sustainability and improved patient access through enhanced professional roles, multidisciplinary team working, new community services, and integrating with acute and social care.
Aims and Objectives:
- To provide an overview of the future vision of a primary care orientated health care service in Wales
- To share learning from a national programme of innovation projects led by primary care clinicians
- To compare the experiences of this programme with international research and practice experience.
Format (timing, speakers, discussion, group work, etc): There will be a short presentation with opportunity for interactive discussion with workshop participants.
Target audience: Anyone with an interest in transforming primary care – patients, clinicians, managers and evaluators.
Learnings/Take away:
- Understanding of the context, challenges and future vision of health and social care in Wales
- An appreciation of the challenges to implementing new model of primary care and common elements of successful transformation programmes