Making integrated care a reality
The government has made it clear that better integration of care must be at the heart of the reformed health system. The King's Fund and Nuffield Trust were asked by the Department of Health to support the development of a national strategy for the promotion of integrated care.
The focus of the work was on how integrated care can be taken forward at scale and pace in local communities.
The findings were submitted in January 2012 to the Department of Health as well as the Future Forum as part of its work on 'how to ensure the modernisation programme leads to better integration of services around people's needs'.
- You can read the full report: Integrated care for patients and populations: Improving outcomes by working together
- We have developed a slidepack, 'The evidence base for integrated care', which looks at what can be done to deliver integrated care successfully at scale.
Why are we interested in this project?
In the next decade, the health and social care system will have to contend with an ageing population, increasing numbers of people with complex long-term conditions, budget constraints, increasingly sophisticated (and expensive) treatments and rising expectations of what health and care services should deliver.
An integrated approach aims to meet these challenges through better co-ordination of health and social care services, reducing the fragmentation or duplication of care.
Project team
- Nick Goodwin
- Chris Ham
- Judith Smith (Nuffield Trust)
