Primary care requires ‘continuous transformation’ to deliver effective services, CSP director of practice and development Ash James told a national conference.
Speaking at the Primary Care Show in Birmingham recently, Ash spoke about how the health of the UK population is changing, ageing and becoming more complex. He mentioned there also must be a culture shift towards primary and community care, with a greater focus on prevention, population health, integration, use of technology and meaningful data. He also talked about how transformation involves three key aspects: time, resource and collective and shared purpose.
Running from 15-16 May in Birmingham, the Primary Care Show is a noted event for clinicians working in primary and community care.
'Continued transformation is needed'
Ash said: 'Continued transformation is needed to deliver primary care services that are fit for purpose and to enact the findings of Next steps for integrating primary care: the Fuller Stocktake Report. These findings are based on three factors: streamlining access to care and advice; providing more proactive, personalised care with support from a multidisciplinary team of professionals; and helping people stay well for longer. Strong primary and community care services are paramount for managing the population into the future.'
Ash also outlined how health inequalities are and will continue to be a significant issue. On average there is almost a 10-year difference between the most and least deprived members of our society in relation to years lived in poorer health.
Looking ahead to the future
Also, potentially one of the most significant issues is the rise and continued rise in the prevalence of complex multimorbidity; to deal effectively with this, we must have services ready to cope with the demand this demographic shift will bring.
Another factor to consider, Ash pointed out, is that there has also been a significant ageing of our population, which is set to continue with the fastest rise being in the over-85 group; as the population ages there is an increased chance that they have multiple long-term conditions that require management, with some people over 75 having five or six different conditions. Ash mentioned also that we have traditionally set up services around single conditions and this will need to change given the changing demographics.
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