Ambitious plan to reduce FGH admissions by 12 people a day

The Better Care Together programme was launched in February 2015 in a bid to improve access to health services and reduce spiraling costs across Barrow and south Cumbria.

Now 12 months into a five-year plan to cut the number of hospital admissions and move some health services into the community, the project is already considered to be offering a blueprint for healthcare change in the UK. 

Dr Hugh Reeve, clinical chairman for Cumbria's Clinical Commissioning Group, said the first subtle changes to the way health provision is rolled out are now being noticed by residents and patients across the area.

"This is about finding new ways of delivering healthcare," he said.

"It's unique to our community - there's no manual for success that we can follow.

"Morecambe Bay is one of the government's Vanguard models, so there has been a lot of national interest and I think that will increase as we get further into the five year plan.

"There is a lot of very exciting work going on."

At its launch, Better Care Together prompted concern among hospital staff that a projected reduction in beds at Furness General, in Barrow, as well as Westmorland General in Kendal and the Royal Lancaster Infirmary would result in job cuts.

But hospital leaders maintain that no redundancies are planned - with the number of hospital-based roles falling as community posts increase.

BCT became one of 29 change programmes to be granted Vanguard Status from a total of 269 applications by the Department of Health in March last year.

The accolade saw the government provide £4.29m of funding for BCT - paid in November - to allow the first of its carefully-laid plans to be put into action.

So far, this money has been used to begin the dovetailing of IT systems across different healthcare providers in south Cumbria to make sure patients' records are accessible to all.

A system to allow GPs to contact hospital specialists directly for advice on whether a patient should be referred for an appointment or if their condition or complaint can be managed by their doctor's surgery is up and running.

And video conferencing facilities are being installed in the health centre in Millom to allow patients to speak to a hospital specialist without driving to FGH.

A study found that 22,900 health journeys were being taken out of the town prior to the work of a community-based group called the Millom Alliance, equating to one million miles travelled - though that number has reduced by around 130,000 miles thanks to the Alliance.  

Dr Reeve, a GP in Grange, added more changes are on the agenda for the next 12 to 18 months.

"There's been some really positive progress over the past year - particularly with the groundbreaking work to immerse the community in healthcare provision in Millom.

"But I think people are going to see more of the changes in the next 12 to 18 months.

"We will hopefully see the new Alfred Barrow Health Centre in Barrow get under way, which will become a hub for health care in Furness.

"We also hope to get patient initiated follow-ups launched to give people the opportunity to seek a follow-up appointment with a specialist when they need it, not just when they have received an appointment telling them to attend hospital.

"The system is incredibly clogged up at the moment - these things should improve capacity and begin the change in the way we deliver healthcare that we need in this area."

Dr Paul Grout, clinical director of acute medicine at FGH, said pressure on the area's hospital was unsustainable in the long-term, with joined up working between health providers now essential.

He said: "The Millom project is now receiving national attention. 

"We want that to happen in Barrow now. It's a much bigger community so it will be harder but we believe that we can within the next two years start to see a very different health service under the Better Care Together scheme."

READ MORE:   The trust aims to reduce the number of people being admitted