Our Next Steps for Better Health and Care for Everyone in West Yorkshire and Harrogate

Posted on: 14 February 2018

West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership (WY&H HCP) has published ‘Our Next Steps to Better Health and Care for Everyone’. The document describes the progress made since the publication of the initial WY&H plan in November 2016, and sets out how the partnership will improve health and care for the 2.6 million people living across the area in 2018 and beyond.

WY&H HCP includes eleven clinical commissioning groups (which buy and plan healthcare for local people), eight local councils, and services provided by a number of health and social care organisations, including hospitals, mental health care providers, the ambulance service, Healthwatch, and community organisations.

The partnership is built on organisations working together in the WY&H six local areas: Bradford District and Craven, Calderdale, Harrogate and Rural District, Kirklees, Leeds, and Wakefield to meet the needs of the people in each of these places. Partners also work together on nine priority programmes for the whole of WY&H, including mental health, hospitals working together, stroke, urgent and emergency care.

The document focuses on the progress being made on these priorities and others, and describes how the partnership will continue to work together on the ‘triple aim’ of the Five Year Forward View, which is all about improving the health of people; providing better care; and financial sustainability.

Rob Webster, West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership CEO Lead said: “We have taken forward a significant amount of work since we published our draft plan in 2016 and our partnership has grown and matured over the past fourteen months. We have further developed our programmes of work into clear plans for delivery and begun to deliver in important areas - for example urgent care and mental health. We have attracted over £45m of national funding to support our transformation, including cancer, so we can move quickly on our priorities. In addition, we continue to have meaningful conversations and effective engagement with staff and the public – both at West Yorkshire and Harrogate level and in each of the places that make up our partnership. These conversations are, and will remain, an essential part of the way we work”.

Tom Riordan, Chief Executive for Leeds City Council said “‘Local authorities are working collaboratively in their districts and across the wider health system to address the challenges of an ageing population and increasing demand for health and care services. We have ensured that community voices have been central to the design of our local Leeds Plan and the approach in West Yorkshire and Harrogate, and will continue to play that role actively. We look forward to working with our NHS and third sector colleagues to create a culture where people who are poorest improve their health the fastest”.

Dr Andy Withers, Chair of the WY&H Clinical Forum and Clinical Chair of the NHS Bradford Districts Clinical Commissioning Group said “We have much to be proud of but we also need to address some significant health challenges across WY&H. For example people don’t live as long in WY&H as the national average and they spend a larger proportion of their lives in ill health; we have higher than average obesity levels, and over 200,000 people are at risk of diabetes. Working together with our staff and communities is the only way we can tackle these challenges and achieve our ambitions of the best health and care possible for the people across our area”.

Rory Deighton, Director for Healthwatch Kirklees said ”Healthwatch organisations across West Yorkshire and Harrogate are committed to supporting the West Yorkshire and Harrogate Health and Care Partnership as it develops the next stage of its plans. At a time when financial pressures are greater than ever and health inequalities continue to grow we believe that the partnership offers a vision for the future that has people, patients and carers at its heart.”

You can read “Our Next Steps” here. An EasyRead, audio, animation, summary and BSL version is also available on the webpage.

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