Our Integrated Care Strategy – Improving Lives Together – sets out our ambition for health and care across Sussex over the next five years.
We want to improve the lives of local people by supporting them to live healthier for longer and making sure they have access to the best possible services when they need them.
To make our ambition a reality, we have developed a Shared Delivery Plan across system partners. It aims to bring together all the work taking place into one plan so all organisations can collectively focus on bringing the greatest benefit to local people.
The improvement plan sets out the:
Long-term Improvement Priorities that will bring about the greatest long-term benefits for local people, services and our workforce. These are:
- Creating Integrated Community Teams
- Growing and developing our workforce
- Making better use of digital technology and information
Immediate Improvement Priorities to services that need the greatest improvement. These are:
- Increasing access and reducing variability in Primary Care
- Improving response times to 999 calls and reducing A&E waiting times
- Reducing diagnostic and planned care waiting lists
- Accelerating patient flow and discharge in hospitals
Continuous Improvement Priorities that need to be part of all improvements that are made. These are:
- Addressing health inequalities that exist across our population by improving access to services, experience and outcomes for those who are most disadvantaged.
- Addressing the mental health, learning disabilities and autism service improvements that we need to make.
- Strengthening clinical leadership to allow us to make improvements to both health and care services and the health outcomes of local people.
- Getting the best use of the finances available so we can invest in services and make sure we are working in the most effective and efficient way.
Place-based Priorities and the implementation of our Health and Wellbeing Strategies in Brighton & Hove, East Sussex and West Sussex.
The difference this will make for local people
Through the actions we are taking over the next five years, we are aiming to make tangible improvements to people’s health and health and care services that are available to them. The benefits will be varied and wide ranging but the key improvements we expect everyone to experience are:
- More people being better supported to manage their own health and wellbeing so they can stay healthier for longer and will be better supported to live a more fulfilled life and retain independence when they do become ill.
- More people and carers experiencing support and care that better meets their individual needs and is better suited to the community they live.
- More people having better access to services and experience more seamless care that is more focused on preventing them becoming ill.
- More people experiencing shorter waits for treatment.
- More people being cared for closer to home and those who do need inpatient hospital care will be able to return home quicker.
- Those who live in our most deprived areas and those with protected characteristics having more equitable access to services and improved experience of using services. More
- More people who either have, or are at risk of, serious illness being diagnosed, supported and cared for at an earlier stage.
- More people being able to access services digitally more easily and feel supported to use technology in the best way to suit them and their needs.
Developing our plan
Our improvement plan was developed and agreed across our health and care partners and responds to data, best practice, national policy and evidence. It is shaped by what we have been told by local people about what matters to them and their experience of health and care.
Delivering our improvement plan will need all health and care organisations and wider partners working together and differently with each other and local people in different ways.
Each of our improvement areas will be done through a programme of work that is delivered across health and care organisations and wider partners.
We will be regularly reviewing our improvement plan to make sure we are achieving what we have committed to and make sure we are also flexible to respond to new issues that need to be addressed in future.