Joining up care is essential if we are to deliver better outcomes for our communities and meet patients’ expectations.
Pressures in urgent and emergency care, elective treatment and long-term condition pathways are intensified when services are spread across different organisations, teams and settings that do not always work seamlessly. This increases risk, delay and avoidable harm for patients.
We cannot address this on our own and will work in partnerships across Newcastle, the region and the integrated care system, working as one system around patients. Our focus will be on whole care pathways and the needs of the population, not individual services.
Key focus areas
- Developing neighbourhood teams and community-based care
- Transforming outpatient care and digital access
- Reducing inequalities by focusing on prevention and population health
- Clear clinical oversight and ownership across whole care pathway
- Collaboration across the Great North Healthcare Alliance
Care will become simpler, faster and more joined up, while continuing to meet NHS constitutional standards.
By improving how patients move between services and ensuring people receive the right care, in the right place, first time, we want to transform patient experience, improve outcomes and make better use of our collective resources. This approach also supports prevention, personalised care and action to reduce unfair differences in health.
To succeed, we must be both a provider of excellent care and a trusted system partner. We recognise that our size and specialist role can shape how others experience working with us. We will work with openness and humility, listen carefully, and share responsibility with our partners for delivering joined‑up care.
Our strategic clinical plan sets out how this will be delivered in practice, including clear expectations for clinical leadership, shared ownership of pathways and effective collaboration with primary and community care to improve value, outcomes and experience.
